Where to use , and ?

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

The  tag in HTML is used to break the line. In HTML, is preferred, but we can use and as well. is an empty tag, so we don't need to close this tag. We can use either   or  to break line, both are allowed (but not both( ) because it will give us two-line break). In XHTML, is preferred, but we can use or since XML doesn't allow leaving tags open.. The outdated browsers parse XHTML as HTML and failed with .

Note: XHTML is case-sensitive and HTML is not.

How do I use : we can just place whatever position we want a line break.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>
        br example
    </title>
</head>

<body>

    
<p> Hi My name is Kapil. <br> I am 23 year old.</p>



</body>

</html>

Output:

As we can see from the above code the tag breaking the line and the next statement printing in a new line.

How do I use : we can just place whatever position we want a line break same as tag.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>
        br example
    </title>
</head>

<body>

    
<p> Hi My name is Kapil. </br> I am 23 year old.</p>



</body>

</html>

Output:

As we can see from the above code it is giving the same output as tag giving.

Conclusion: The and tag can be used alternatively but if we use both together then we will get two line breaks, one for and other for .

Example 1: Using both and (It gives two line breaks)

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
    <title>
        br example
    </title>
</head>

<body>

    
<p> Hi My name is Kapil. <br></br> I am 23 year old.</p>



</body>

</html>

Output:

Example 2: Used to break line in XHTML.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>
        br example
    </title>
</head>
<body>


<p> Hi My name is Kapil. <br/> I am 23 year old.</p>
 


</body>
</html>

Output:

Example 3

HTML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" 
      xml:lang="en" 
      lang="en">

<body>
    
<p> This is Example of using &lt;br /&gt; tag. <br />
        This text will come in new line.</p>

</body>

</html>