jQuery selectors use CSS syntax: $('#id'), $('.class'), $('p'). Combine selectors for precision. Always cache frequently used selectors in variables: var $menu = $('#menu') to avoid repeated DOM searches.
jQuery Selectors
$('p') // all paragraphs
$('#main') // ID
$('.card') // class
$('ul li') // descendant
$('input[type=text]') // attribute
$('p:first') // first p
$('tr:even') // even rows
$('p:not(.red)') // exclusion
jQuery selectors follow CSS syntax plus extra pseudo-selectors.