In this chapter, we consider systems that support small-amplitude waves whose speed depends on wavelength. This is in distinction from acoustic waves (or light in the vacuum) that all move with the same speed so that a small-amplitude one-dimensional perturbation propagates without changing its shape. When the speeds of different Fourier harmonics are different, the shape of a perturbation generally changes as it propagates. In particular, initially localized perturbation spreads. That is, dispersion of wave speed leads to packet dispersion in space. This is why such waves are called dispersive. Since different harmonics move with different speeds, then they separate with time and can subsequently be found in different places. As a result, for quite arbitrary excitation mechanisms one often finds locally sinusoidal perturbation, the property well known to everybody who has observed waves on water surface. Surface waves form the main subject of analysis in this section but the ideas and results apply equally well to numerous other dispersive waves that exist in bulk fluids, plasma and solids (where dispersion usually results from some anisotropy or inhomogeneity of the medium). We shall try to keep our description universal when we turn to a consideration of non-linear dispersive waves having finite amplitudes. We shall consider weak non-linearity, assuming amplitudes to be small, and weak dispersion, which is possible in two distinct cases: (i) when the dispersion relation is close to acoustic and (ii) when waves are excited in a narrow spectral interval.