This XML document carries information in a table:
<h:table> <h:tr> <h:td>Apples</h:td> <h:td>Bananas</h:td> </h:tr></h:table>
This XML document carries information about a piece of furniture:
<f:table> <f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name> <f:width>80</f:width> <f:length>120</f:length></f:table>
Now there will be no name conflict because the two documents use a different name for their <table> element (<h:table> and <f:table>).
By using a prefix, we have created two different types of <table> elements.