The different parts of an email address

The first part is the unique username. This is something you can choose for yourself. You can use your first and second name or any combination of words and numbers. You may not be able to use your first choice if someone else already has that username.

The next part is the ‘@’ symbol (pronounced ‘at’). This indicates that this is an email address and not a website address.

The last part of an email address is the name of the email provider followed by something like ‘.com’, ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.org’. For example: username@gmail.com.

The part of the email after the dot tells you something about the organisation that owns it. For example, ‘.com’ is usually used by large, global companies like Google, ‘.org’ is often used by non-profit organisations and ‘co.uk’ is used by companies registered in the UK. Other countries have their own endings, such as ‘.fr’ (France) and ‘.ie’ (Ireland).

For example, Lead Scotland emails end in @lead.org.uk, which tells you they are a non-profit organisation based in the UK. The Open University emails end in @open.ac.uk which tells you that it is a university in the UK.