In the standard model there are 12 elementary particles which compose all matter. (As distinct from the carriers of the fundamental forces.) They are divided into 6 quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom) and 6 leptons (electon, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau particle, tau neutrino).

There two main types of elementary particle - the fermion and the boson. There are two types of fermion - the quark and the lepton. Bosons are force carriers, but are still considered particles.