What Is a Programming Language?

Programming, or coding, is like solving a puzzle. Consider a human language, like English or French. We use these languages to turn thoughts and ideas into actions and behavior. In programming, the goal of the puzzle is exactly the same -- you're just driving different kinds of behavior, and the source of that behavior isn't a human. It's a computer.

A programming language is our way of communicating with software. The people who use programming languages are often called programmers or developers. The things we tell software using a programming language could be to make a webpage look a certain way, or to make an object on the page move if the human user takes a certain action.