A display apparatus and a method for inputting characters thereof are provided. The display apparatus includes: a display unit which displays a character input UI including a plurality of character items, each character item comprising a border and a character located in the border, an input unit which receives a user command to select one of the plurality of character items, and, a controller which, if a first character item is selected from among the plurality of character items through the input unit, controls the display unit to display at least one recommended character item associated with the first character to partially overlap with character items adjacent to the first character item. Accordingly, a user can input characters more easily using the character input UI.