To je pogrešan dojam.

• To = that / this / it in a general demonstrative sense
• je = is
• pogrešan = wrong / mistaken
• dojam = impression

So the sentence is literally something like That is a wrong impression or more naturally That is a mistaken impression.

To is very flexible in Croatian. In sentences like this, it often works like English that or it in That is... / It is....

So To je pogrešan dojam can refer to:

• something just mentioned
• an idea
• a situation
• what someone thinks

It is a very common way to identify or comment on something.

Compare:

• To je problem. = That is the problem.
• To je dobro. = That is good.

Because je is a clitic. In Croatian, clitics usually go near the beginning of the sentence, typically in second position.

So:

• To je pogrešan dojam. is normal

This second-position behavior is very common with short forms such as:

• je = is
• sam = am
• si = are
• ga = him/it
• se = reflexive marker

English speakers often want to place je more freely, but in Croatian its position is much more restricted.

Because it has to agree with dojam in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, dojam is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective also appears in the masculine singular nominative form:

• pogrešan dojam = masculine singular
• pogrešna ideja = feminine singular
• pogrešno mišljenje = neuter singular

This agreement is a core feature of Croatian grammar.

The noun dojam is masculine because it belongs to the common Croatian pattern of masculine nouns ending in a consonant.

Here it ends in -m, so it is masculine:

• dojam
• problem
• grad
• stol

That is why the adjective must be pogrešan, not pogrešna or pogrešno.

It is in the nominative singular.

In this sentence, dojam is the predicate noun after je in an identifying sentence:

• To je dojam.
• To je pogrešan dojam.

The adjective and noun are both in nominative here.

If the noun changed role in the sentence, the case could change too. For example:

• Nemam pogrešan dojam would not be correct in standard Croatian; after nemam, the object would normally be pogrešan dojam in the accusative, but for masculine inanimate nouns like dojam, nominative and accusative look the same in the singular. So the form stays dojam.

Croatian has no articles like English a/an/the.

So pogrešan dojam can mean:

• a wrong impression
• the wrong impression

The exact meaning depends on context.

Croatian expresses definiteness in other ways, such as:

• context
• word order
• demonstratives like taj, ovaj, onaj

For example:

• To je pogrešan dojam. = That is a wrong/the wrong impression
• To je taj pogrešan dojam. = That is that wrong impression

Yes, but the neutral order here is:

• To je pogrešan dojam.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but changes often affect:

• emphasis
• style
• information structure

For example:

• Pogrešan je dojam. puts more emphasis on wrong
• Dojam je pogrešan. can also work, depending on context, but it sounds less neutral

Even when the word order changes, the clitic je still tends to stay in second position:

• Pogrešan je dojam.

So flexibility does not mean complete freedom.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

• pogrešan ≈ po-GRE-shan

Helpful points:

• g is always a hard g, as in go
• š sounds like sh
• j in Croatian sounds like English y

So dojam is roughly:

• DO-yam

A rough full pronunciation is:

• to ye po-GRE-shan DO-yam

No. Another common word is utisak.

Both can mean impression, but:

• dojam is very common in Croatian
• utisak is also common, though usage can vary by region and style

So you may also see:

• To je pogrešan utisak.

For a learner of Croatian, dojam is an excellent and natural word to know.

To make it negative, use nije:

• To nije pogrešan dojam. = That is not a mistaken impression.

To make it a yes-no question, a common pattern is Je li...:

• Je li to pogrešan dojam? = Is that a mistaken impression?

In speech, you may also hear intonation-based questions, but Je li... is the standard pattern learners should know first.