Anchor tag’s behaviours can be manipulated by using pseudo-classes. Let’s say we want a link to go bold when we hover over it, we can use the pseudo class to do this. Look at the syntax:
selector:pseudo{ foo:bar; }

Now let’s do our bold hover example. I’ll also pop in the original anchor declaration:
a { color:red; }
a:hover { font-weight:bold; }
When the user hovers their mouse over the anchor it will appear bolded. I’ve done this on the link below:

Example.

Easy.

Other pseudo classes for anchor text include:

• link
• visited
• hover
• active

All of these refer to the state and behaviour of the anchor itself. It’s pretty self-explanatory what each is for.

It is also possible to use a class on your pseudo-classes:
a.red:hover { font-weight:bold; }
You can then use class="red" to all the class.

Another useful pseudo-element is the first-child pseudo-class. This allows you to add a style to an element that is the first child of another element. This is handy for styling the first list element out of an (un)ordered list.