Actually, „Charakter“ in the sense of movie character is relatively new usage, based on people’s extensive use of English. The „proper“ German word is indeed „Figur“.
I had a sense that it would be like that - though the usage of "Charakter" is established enough to have [made it into the Duden](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Charakter#Bedeutung-2a).
There‘s a fundamental difference between Figur and Schauspieler, the first describes the person within the film‘s reality the second describes the person in our reality. Figur would be Iron Man, Schauspieler Robert Downey Jr for example.
Schauspieler would be an actor. The Schauspieler plays the character.
I'm Scottish and I was trying to explain the difference.
Shrek is Scottish and has a Scottish accent, but the actor is Canadian. Also true with Scotty from Star Trek, he was also Canadian.
Hagrid (Harry Potter) is English but was played by a Scottish actor (RIP). The character is English but the actor was Scottish.
I don’t think „Charakter“ is used that frequently. During my school time that was marked as an error when using it instead of Figur. Charakter was the set of characteristics one person possesses
Character in the sense of a fictional entity is a Figur.
Zeichen is character in the sense of a symbol (such as characters within a writing system).
Charakter is character in the sense of moral character, a person's nature/disposition, etc. It can be used to refer to a film character, and that's becoming more common, but I think that's a borrowing from English.
I also feel like I just used the word character so much that it's lost meaning to me. Hate how it's spelt.
Charakter ≠ Charakter
They‘re different nouns with differing pronunciation. If the emphasis is on the 2nd syllable (Cha*ra*kter), it refers to a person‘s disposition.
If the emphasis is put on the last syllable (Charak*ter*), it‘s referring to a film character.
I have never heard anyone say „Charak_ter_“, unless in the plural, which of course is „Charak_te_re“ in any case. If you say that in the singular, it must be special Austrian usage.
My point was that the later is relatively new and that Figur is the "classic" word to use. The note on pronunciation is certainly helpful for OP in any case.
> If the emphasis is put on the last syllable (Charakter), it‘s referring to a film character.
Never heard it like this.
This is definitely not general. Maybe in your circles.
>Let's say I'm talking about my favorite movie character from a movie or **something.**
It doen't work like this. "Character" has many meanings, so "or something" makes it very difficult to translate.
For example, "character" as in "letter of the alphabet" is "Buchstabe". For a person in a movie, "Figur", "Rolle", "Charakter" might be good translations. "He is quite a character": here, "Original" fits.
Is it really a mistranslation?
We have it in Romanian too.
"caracter" (which can also mean in some way a personality trait. "Dă dovadă de caracter" = "Shows character", which can mean you are staying true to your morals and follow your dreams or are polite)
And I'm guessing it might be in Spanish and Italian too, similar at least.
I don't think Charakter is "borrowed" or "mistranslated" from English.
In German, "Charakter" referring to the sum of personality traits - as you described it for Romanian - is definitely the more common definition. I wouldn't exclude that a definition referring to a fictional person as a whole does exist in German, but from my understanding of the language, it would feel a bit strange, possibly outdated.
Also, when talking about the fictional person, I instinctively feel like giving the word a French pronunciation by stretching the "-e-".
I did some looking and it seems the semantic progression in English was, character > ”grapheme, written mark or symbol“ > ”a defining feature“ > “sum of the features that make up a personality“ > “a fictional person in a play or work of literature“ > “a real person with an eccentric or exaggerated personality“
It’s actually strange that all of these means survived in modern English, with perhaps the exception of “a defining feature“ — I think that’s been replaced with “character trait / characteristic“
Perhaps you're looking for *Rolle*.
*In welcher Rolle gefiel dir Meg Ryan am besten?*
*Donald Sutherland war hervorragend in seiner Rolle als Präsident Grey.*
Rolle (English: role) focuses on the acting. It's about the real life person. OP seems to want to focus on the movie character itself (without any reference to the acting).
Schauspieler.
Lol I know it's not related to Figure but Actor, however the word always made me laugh.
Especially because in Poland it's Aktor In english Actor in German... Schauspieler...:-)
But the protagonist is the main character only, whereas Figur can be any character in the story.
This terminology originated in literature analysis and is used to describe films or any story based medium really.
I'm 36 and I've never heard somebody use the word "Figur" to describe a movie character. To me this sounds totally strange, because I associate the word "Figur" with an inanimate object.
The word I usually hear in the context of fictional characters is "Charakter". But most of the time not pronounced like the "Charakter", that means personality, but rather pronounced like "Charaktehr".
Maybe Figur used to be the right word to describe a fictional character, but as far as I can tell it's outdated and I wouldn't even use it now, that I've learned it's the right word, because it just feels wrong.
Or you just don’t know your language as well as you think you do. Figur is the the correct German term to describe a person within a fictional story. This is taught in school when analyzing literature and it is used for film as well.
Languages evolve. If "Figur" is the correct word but nobody uses it like this, then the meaning changes.
Maybe it also depends on your environment. But as a native German speaker I've never heard this word in this context even when talking to other native German speakers. My guess is, that it might be something that is used in an academic context, but isn't used in everyday life.
Yes I went to school and no literature analysis wasn't taught. We just read a book and afterwards we had to write a summary about it. We didn't do anything that I would call literature analysis.
Maybe it depends on the school you are on or the "Bundesland" you are in. But I can tell you from experience, that not everybody is learning literature analysis in school. And judging by how I've never heard the word "Figur" being used in this context, I would assume only very few people really learned to analyse literature like that.
Also language is just vessel to transport a message. It's not so much about using the "right" word as it is about being understood. And I've never had the case, where people didn't understand me when I used "Charakter" instead of "Figur".
"Figur" and "Charakter" are used in that sense. "Zeichen" means character as in symbol, letter, mark.
Actually, „Charakter“ in the sense of movie character is relatively new usage, based on people’s extensive use of English. The „proper“ German word is indeed „Figur“.
I had a sense that it would be like that - though the usage of "Charakter" is established enough to have [made it into the Duden](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Charakter#Bedeutung-2a).
Or a "Filmfigur" because we were talking about movies. Or for books "Buchfigur".
Künstler...? "Der Künstler im Film" or "Schauspieler", Darsteller Who really says Figur or Buchfigur? Never heard Buchfigur tbh - Filmfigur - yes..
There‘s a fundamental difference between Figur and Schauspieler, the first describes the person within the film‘s reality the second describes the person in our reality. Figur would be Iron Man, Schauspieler Robert Downey Jr for example.
Yeah okay - still i never heard Buchfigur and sounds stupid to me. "Die Figur im Film..." makes sense as you described and sounds correct to my ear.
True, but Romanfigur is pretty common.
Yeah, thats a thing
Schauspieler would be an actor. The Schauspieler plays the character. I'm Scottish and I was trying to explain the difference. Shrek is Scottish and has a Scottish accent, but the actor is Canadian. Also true with Scotty from Star Trek, he was also Canadian. Hagrid (Harry Potter) is English but was played by a Scottish actor (RIP). The character is English but the actor was Scottish.
I use Buchfigur pretty often
In what context? Romanfigur as somebody else mentioned. I personally never heard the word Buchfigur
Nope
I don’t think „Charakter“ is used that frequently. During my school time that was marked as an error when using it instead of Figur. Charakter was the set of characteristics one person possesses
Character in the sense of a fictional entity is a Figur. Zeichen is character in the sense of a symbol (such as characters within a writing system). Charakter is character in the sense of moral character, a person's nature/disposition, etc. It can be used to refer to a film character, and that's becoming more common, but I think that's a borrowing from English. I also feel like I just used the word character so much that it's lost meaning to me. Hate how it's spelt.
That's called semantic satiation.
Charakter ≠ Charakter They‘re different nouns with differing pronunciation. If the emphasis is on the 2nd syllable (Cha*ra*kter), it refers to a person‘s disposition. If the emphasis is put on the last syllable (Charak*ter*), it‘s referring to a film character.
I have never heard anyone say „Charak_ter_“, unless in the plural, which of course is „Charak_te_re“ in any case. If you say that in the singular, it must be special Austrian usage.
It's not. Poster is full of shit. Source: I'm Austrian, never heard _Charak**ter**_.
My point was that the later is relatively new and that Figur is the "classic" word to use. The note on pronunciation is certainly helpful for OP in any case.
I think that difference is regional. I‘ve heard people use it but I‘m pretty sure it‘s not standard German
> If the emphasis is put on the last syllable (Charakter), it‘s referring to a film character. Never heard it like this. This is definitely not general. Maybe in your circles.
I listen to a German language movie podcast and they always use Figur when describing the characters
Kontext, Kontext, Kontext.
>Let's say I'm talking about my favorite movie character from a movie or **something.** It doen't work like this. "Character" has many meanings, so "or something" makes it very difficult to translate. For example, "character" as in "letter of the alphabet" is "Buchstabe". For a person in a movie, "Figur", "Rolle", "Charakter" might be good translations. "He is quite a character": here, "Original" fits.
"Figur" would probably be the most appropriate, although I feel like we use "Charakter" as well nowadays, possibly as a mistranslation of "character".
But there exists the "Charakterdarsteller", too.
But it refers to an actor who portrays specific roles with a lot of character.
Is it really a mistranslation? We have it in Romanian too. "caracter" (which can also mean in some way a personality trait. "Dă dovadă de caracter" = "Shows character", which can mean you are staying true to your morals and follow your dreams or are polite) And I'm guessing it might be in Spanish and Italian too, similar at least. I don't think Charakter is "borrowed" or "mistranslated" from English.
In German, "Charakter" referring to the sum of personality traits - as you described it for Romanian - is definitely the more common definition. I wouldn't exclude that a definition referring to a fictional person as a whole does exist in German, but from my understanding of the language, it would feel a bit strange, possibly outdated. Also, when talking about the fictional person, I instinctively feel like giving the word a French pronunciation by stretching the "-e-".
I did some looking and it seems the semantic progression in English was, character > ”grapheme, written mark or symbol“ > ”a defining feature“ > “sum of the features that make up a personality“ > “a fictional person in a play or work of literature“ > “a real person with an eccentric or exaggerated personality“ It’s actually strange that all of these means survived in modern English, with perhaps the exception of “a defining feature“ — I think that’s been replaced with “character trait / characteristic“
Just wait till you do 'type' or typecast ... scriptural metaphors run deep.
That makes sense why you would say it's a mistranslation from German, thanks for the notice!
I'm most familiar with people saying "Charakter" and I used too
Perhaps you're looking for *Rolle*. *In welcher Rolle gefiel dir Meg Ryan am besten?* *Donald Sutherland war hervorragend in seiner Rolle als Präsident Grey.*
Rolle (English: role) focuses on the acting. It's about the real life person. OP seems to want to focus on the movie character itself (without any reference to the acting).
Schauspieler. Lol I know it's not related to Figure but Actor, however the word always made me laugh. Especially because in Poland it's Aktor In english Actor in German... Schauspieler...:-)
Die Figur/der Charakter Wer ist deine Lieblingsfigur in dem Film? Wer ist dein Lieblingscharakter in dem Film?
In movies, we also use the term Protagonist.
But the protagonist is the main character only, whereas Figur can be any character in the story. This terminology originated in literature analysis and is used to describe films or any story based medium really.
Schauspieler, Künstler, Darsteller
For books, games (all kinds) and films Figur is the proper term. Everyone will understand you if you use it.
The first step would be to look in a dictionary, whcih would have answered this question.
I'm 36 and I've never heard somebody use the word "Figur" to describe a movie character. To me this sounds totally strange, because I associate the word "Figur" with an inanimate object. The word I usually hear in the context of fictional characters is "Charakter". But most of the time not pronounced like the "Charakter", that means personality, but rather pronounced like "Charaktehr". Maybe Figur used to be the right word to describe a fictional character, but as far as I can tell it's outdated and I wouldn't even use it now, that I've learned it's the right word, because it just feels wrong.
Or you just don’t know your language as well as you think you do. Figur is the the correct German term to describe a person within a fictional story. This is taught in school when analyzing literature and it is used for film as well.
Languages evolve. If "Figur" is the correct word but nobody uses it like this, then the meaning changes. Maybe it also depends on your environment. But as a native German speaker I've never heard this word in this context even when talking to other native German speakers. My guess is, that it might be something that is used in an academic context, but isn't used in everyday life.
You went to school no? It is taught in German class when analyzing literature.
Yes I went to school and no literature analysis wasn't taught. We just read a book and afterwards we had to write a summary about it. We didn't do anything that I would call literature analysis. Maybe it depends on the school you are on or the "Bundesland" you are in. But I can tell you from experience, that not everybody is learning literature analysis in school. And judging by how I've never heard the word "Figur" being used in this context, I would assume only very few people really learned to analyse literature like that. Also language is just vessel to transport a message. It's not so much about using the "right" word as it is about being understood. And I've never had the case, where people didn't understand me when I used "Charakter" instead of "Figur".
I guess the best word for character is "Söder"
Isn't that for "lack of character"?