Ovaj glas mi je poznat.

• ovaj = this
• glas = voice
• mi = to me
• je = is
• poznat = known / familiar

So the literal structure is:

This voice is familiar to me.

That is why the natural English translation is often This voice sounds familiar or This voice is familiar to me.

Because glas is a masculine singular noun, and the demonstrative ovaj has to agree with it.

Compare:

• ovaj glas = this voice (masculine)
• ova knjiga = this book (feminine)
• ovo more = this sea (neuter)

So ovaj is the masculine singular nominative form, matching glas.

Glas is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence is basically structured as:

Ovaj glas + mi je poznat
= This voice + is familiar to me

Since this voice is the thing being described, it stays in the nominative.

Because Croatian uses the dative here: poznat nekome = familiar to someone / known to someone.

So:

• mi = to me (short dative form)
• meni = to me (full/stressed dative form)

The other forms do different jobs:

• ja = I
• me / mene = me in accusative/genitive, not dative

So in this sentence, mi is exactly the right form because the meaning is to me.

Yes, but it changes the feel.

• mi is the normal short, unstressed form.
• meni is the full, stressed form, usually used for emphasis or contrast.

For example:

• Ovaj glas mi je poznat. = neutral
• Meni je ovaj glas poznat, ali tebi nije. = This voice is familiar to me, but not to you.

So mi is the ordinary choice here.

Because poznat is the form normally used as a predicate adjective, after je.

Here it means:

• glas je poznat = the voice is familiar / known

But when the adjective stands directly before a noun, you often see:

• poznati glas = a well-known/famous voice or the familiar voice, depending on context

So:

• Ovaj glas mi je poznat. = predicate use
• Ovo je poznati glas. = adjective directly modifying the noun

Also, poznat agrees with glas, which is masculine singular.

In this sentence, poznat most naturally means familiar.

Literally, it means something like known to me, but in natural English we usually say:

• This voice is familiar to me
• This voice sounds familiar

In other contexts, poznat can also mean:

• known
• well-known
• famous

So the exact English translation depends on context. Here, familiar is the best fit.

Because both mi and je are clitics—short unstressed words—and Croatian has rules about where these go.

In standard Croatian, mi je is the normal order in a sentence like this:

• Ovaj glas mi je poznat.

That sequence sounds natural to native speakers. Croatian clitics usually appear near the beginning of the sentence, after the first stressed element or phrase.

So you should learn mi je here as the normal pattern.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and moving words often changes emphasis, not the basic meaning.

For example, you may also hear:

• Poznat mi je ovaj glas.
• Ovaj mi je glas poznat.

These still mean roughly the same thing, but the focus shifts slightly.

The original sentence:

• Ovaj glas mi je poznat.

is a very natural neutral way to say it.

Not always. Glas can mean several things depending on context, including:

• voice
• sound
• vote
• report/news in some expressions

But in Ovaj glas mi je poznat, the meaning is clearly voice. That is why the sentence feels like I recognize this voice or This voice sounds familiar.