Learn Hardcore Dutch: De hoofdpersoon van die roman heeft een ingewikkeld karakter. - The main character of that novel has a complicated personality.

hoofdpersoon – main character (neutral, common in literary contexts)
hoofdpersoon van die roman – the main character of that novel
hoofdpersonage – similar meaning, a bit more formal/literary
hoofdrolspeler – the actor who plays the main role (more about the performer than the character)

So for a character in a novel, hoofdpersoon is very natural and common.

Why is it de hoofdpersoon and not het hoofdpersoon?

In Dutch, every noun is either a de-word (common gender) or a het-word (neuter).
Persoon is a de-word, so:

de persoon
de hoofdpersoon

The prefix hoofd- (meaning "main" or "head") doesn’t change the gender of the noun. It’s still based on persoon, which is a de-word, so you must use de.

Why is it van die roman and not in die roman or something else?

The phrase de hoofdpersoon van die roman literally means "the main person of that novel", which is how Dutch usually expresses this relationship.

van = of / from, expressing belonging or association:
- de schrijver van dat boek – the author of that book
- de hoofdstad van Nederland – the capital of the Netherlands

Using in would shift the meaning:

de hoofdpersoon in die roman – can also mean "the main character in that novel"; it’s understandable and sometimes used, but van is the more standard, idiomatic choice for "the main character of a book/film/etc."

So van is the default preposition to express "the main character of that novel".

What is the difference between die and deze in die roman?

Both die and deze mean "that/this", but there is a distance contrast:

deze roman – this novel (closer in time, space, or context)
die roman – that novel (further away or less immediately present)

Roughly:

deze ≈ this
die ≈ that

Both words are used with de-words like roman. (For het-words, you’d still use dit / dat: dit huis, dat huis.)

So die roman is natural if the novel is a bit more distant in context (e.g. one you talked about earlier, not the one in your hands right now).

Why is it die roman and not dat roman?

Because roman (novel) is a de-word:

de roman – the novel

Demonstratives must match the gender:

de-words: deze (this), die (that)
het-words: dit (this), dat (that)

So:

die roman – correct
dat roman – incorrect (you could say dat boek, because boek is a het-word)

Why is the verb heeft and not hebben or hebt?

The verb here is hebben (to have). In the present tense:

ik heb – I have
jij/u hebt – you have
hij/zij/het heeft – he/she/it has
wij/jullie/zij hebben – we/you(pl)/they have

The subject of the sentence is de hoofdpersoon (3rd person singular), so you use:

de hoofdpersoon … heeft – the main character has …

Hebben would be used with a plural subject, e.g.:

De hoofdpersonen van die roman hebben een ingewikkeld karakter.
"The main characters of that novel have a complicated character."

Why is it een ingewikkeld karakter and not een ingewikkelde karakter?

This is about adjective endings in Dutch.

Karakter is a het-word: het karakter.
Rule of thumb for attributive adjectives (adjective before the noun):
- With de or het (definite): add -e
  - het ingewikkelde karakter
  - de ingewikkelde persoon
- With een
  - de-word: add -e
    - een ingewikkelde persoon
- With een
  - het-word: no -e
    - een ingewikkeld karakter

So because:

karakter is het karakter
and you have een (indefinite)

→ the correct form is een ingewikkeld karakter (without -e).

Is karakter the same as "personality", or is there a difference?

Dutch karakter overlaps with English character and personality, but it’s closer to:

someone’s inner nature / temperament / character traits

You’ll often see:

een sterk karakter – a strong character
een moeilijk karakter – a difficult personality

For everyday speech about personality, Dutch also uses:

persoonlijkheid – literally "personality", often more neutral/psychological
- een sterke persoonlijkheid – a strong personality

In this sentence, ingewikkeld karakter could be rendered as "complex personality" or "complicated character" in English, depending on context.

What nuance does ingewikkeld have? Is it always negative?

Ingewikkeld literally means complicated / complex.

Depending on context, it can be:

slightly negative: hard to understand, difficult to deal with
- Dat is een ingewikkeld probleem. – That’s a complicated problem.
neutral/positive: rich, complex, not simple
- een ingewikkeld verhaal – a complex story (could be interesting and layered)

For a person’s karakter, ingewikkeld usually suggests:

Many layers, contradictions, not straightforward
Possibly difficult in relationships, but also potentially interesting/deep

So it’s not automatically negative, but it often implies "not easy".

Is the word order [subject] – [verb] – [object] here the normal Dutch word order?

Yes. This is a main clause with the regular Dutch S–V–O order:

De hoofdpersoon van die roman – subject
heeft – finite verb
een ingewikkeld karakter – object / rest of the predicate

Basic pattern:
[Subject] + [conjugated verb] + [rest of the sentence]

This is the default order in a simple statement. If you turned it into a yes/no question, you would move the verb to the front:

Heeft de hoofdpersoon van die roman een ingewikkeld karakter?
"Does the main character of that novel have a complicated personality?"

Could I also say "De hoofdpersoon van die roman is ingewikkeld", or is that wrong?

You can say:

De hoofdpersoon van die roman is ingewikkeld.

That means roughly:

"The main character of that novel is complicated."

However, the nuance is slightly different:

heeft een ingewikkeld karakter – focuses on the character/personality as a set of traits
is ingewikkeld – describes the person as a whole as complicated (it can sound a bit more direct/judgmental, depending on context)

Both are grammatically correct; the original with karakter is just more specific and a bit more neutral.

How would I pronounce the sentence correctly?

A rough pronunciation guide (IPA):

De – /də/
hoofdpersoon – /ˈɦoːvd.pərˌsoːn/
van – /vɑn/
die – /di/
roman – /roːˈmɑn/
heeft – /ɦeːft/
een – /ən/ (often very short, almost like a schwa)
ingewikkeld – /ˌɪŋɣəˈʋɪ.kəlt/
karakter – /kaˈrɑk.tər/

Some tips:

oo in hoofd-, roman, -persoon is a long /oː/.
The -dt in heeft is pronounced just as /t/.
In ingewikkeld, the g is the Dutch guttural /ɣ/ and w is often close to an English v/w mix.

You don’t need to be perfect; being roughly close to these sounds will usually be understood well.