Articles introduce noun phrases. In Frisian, they precede the noun, either directly, as in it hynderthe.ART.N horse.Nthe horse, or with attributive material like adjectives in between. An example of the latter type is it wite hynderthe.ART.N white.A-INFL horse.Nthe white horse.

Frisian has two definite articles, viz. de and it; their distribution is dependent on the number and the gender of the noun. Plural nouns invariably have the definite article de, while singular nouns have de for common gender and it for neuter. There is only one indefinite article, i.e. in. Furthermore, a negative article gjinno can be distinguished.

Frisian articles are no longer inflected for case; remnants of older case forms only survive in a few frozen expressions. When the articles are involved in nominal ellipsis, deviating forms may be observed. The definite and indefinite articles also show reduced variants, especially after prepositions.

The main function of definite articles is to introduce identifiable referents of the noun phrase. The referents of noun phrases with indefinite articles have usually not been identified yet. In addition, there are some uses in which articles may have a different function.