The West Frisians (German: Westfriesen) or, more precisely, the Westlauwers Frisians (Westlauwers'sche Friesen) are those Frisian peoples in that part of Frisia administered by the Netherlands. This region, the Province of Friesland, is bounded in the west by the IJsselmeer and in the east by the River Lauwers. In Germany it is often frequently misnamed "West Frisia" (Westfriesland) because the German part is called "East Frisia" (Ostfriesland), hence the incorrect term "West Frisians" (Westfriesen). In the Netherlands the term West-Friezen is only used to refer to the inhabitants of the region of West Friesland and not to the Westlauwers Frisians.
The Westerlauwers Frisians are related to the North Frisians and the eastern Frisians (East Frisians, Saterland Frisians etc.). Whilst the East Frisians had lost their Frisian language by the late Middle Ages, of the 660,000 or so Frisians in the Netherlands, more than 400,000 still speak West Frisian.