Join splitted tags
<html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ var words = $("b:first").text().split(" "); var text = words.join("</span> <span>"); alert(text); }); </script> </head> <body> <body> <b>Hello asdf asdf</b> </body> </html>