$root->implicit_tags(value) Setting this attribute to true will instruct the parser to try to deduce implicit elements and implicit end tags. If it is false you get a parse tree that just reflects the text as it stands, which is unlikely to be useful for anything but quick and dirty parsing. (In fact, I'd be curious to hear from anyone who finds it useful to have implicit_tags set to false.) Default is true. Implicit elements have the implicit() attribute set.