You can do this in the comments loop: if( empty( $comment-> comment_parent ) ) { //if the comment doest have a parent, then it is L1 echo 'my-custom-html'; } More Solution customization - Login form in popup in WordPress Who are the most trusted plugin developers? in WordPress Defining capabilities for custom post type in WordPress database - Routine to convert custom post meta from old to new value in WordPress deployment - Is there a drush equivalent for WordPress yet? in WordPress Reffered: https://wordpress.org/