The lang Attribute
Declare the language of your page for accessibility and SEO.
Syntax
<html lang="en">The lang attribute declares the language of the document. It is added to the <html> element.
Why lang matters
- Helps screen readers pronounce content correctly.
- Helps search engines serve the right results.
- Assists browser translation tools.
For example, lang="en" means English and lang="es" means Spanish.
Example
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When to use it
- A developer sets lang="fr" on a French page so screen readers use the correct voice pronunciation engine.
- A multilingual site sets lang="ar" on a section of Arabic text so the browser applies right-to-left rendering.
- A search engine reads lang="de" on a German page to index it in the appropriate regional search results.
More examples
Page-level language declaration
lang="en" on <html> declares English as the document language for browsers and assistive tools.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>English Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Welcome to SoundsCode.</p>
</body>
</html>Language subtag for regional variant
Region subtags like en-GB or pt-BR let spell-checkers and TTS engines use locale-specific rules.
<!-- British English -->
<html lang="en-GB">
<!-- Brazilian Portuguese -->
<html lang="pt-BR">
<!-- Simplified Chinese -->
<html lang="zh-Hans">Inline language switch for a quote
A lang attribute on an inline element overrides the page language for that specific span of text.
<p>The French say <q lang="fr">Bonjour le monde</q> to greet the world.</p>
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