HTML is used to structure and layout web pages. The basic HTML document has a head and body section. The head contains metadata like the title, while the body contains visible content. Common elements include headings, paragraphs, lists, links, images and tables. Tags like <h1> and <p> define headings and paragraphs. Unordered and ordered lists use <ul> and <ol> tags. Links are created with <a> tags and images with <img> tags. Tables are made up of <table>, <tr>, and <td> tags to define the table, rows, and cells. HTML provides basic building blocks for creating web pages.