Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Moj = my
• gležanj = ankle
• se = a reflexive particle, used with some verbs
• polako = slowly
• oporavlja = recovers / is recovering

So the sentence literally looks like:

My ankle is slowly recovering.

Not always.

Croatian can use a possessive adjective like moj just as English does:

• Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja. = My ankle is slowly recovering.

But Croatian also very often uses a dative pronoun instead, especially with body parts:

• Gležanj mi se polako oporavlja.

This also means My ankle is slowly recovering, but it is often more natural in everyday speech.

So moj is completely correct, but it is not the only natural way to express possession here.

Gležanj is in the nominative singular.

That is because it is the grammatical subject of the sentence:

• gležanj = the thing that is recovering

You can see this in the verb too: oporavlja is 3rd person singular, matching gležanj.

Se is part of the verb oporavljati se / oporaviti se, which means to recover.

It does not mean himself/itself in the same way English reflexives do in a sentence like He washed himself. Here, it is just a normal part of the verb.

So you should learn the verb as:

• oporavljati se = to be recovering / to recover (imperfective)
• oporaviti se = to recover / get better (perfective)

Without se, you are dealing with a different verb pattern, so in this sentence se is necessary.

No. It is not a passive.

Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja means:

• My ankle is slowly recovering
• My ankle is slowly getting better

It does not mean that someone is recovering the ankle.

This is a reflexive/intransitive verb meaning that the subject itself is improving.

Because oporavlja is the present tense of the imperfective verb oporavljati se.

Croatian often uses:

• imperfective verbs for an ongoing process
• perfective verbs for a completed result

Here, the sentence describes a process that is happening gradually:

• Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja. = My ankle is slowly recovering.

If you used the perfective verb oporaviti se, its present tense usually points to the future, not an ongoing present process.

So:

• oporavlja se = is recovering
• oporavit će se = will recover
• oporavio se = recovered / got better

It is present tense, 3rd person singular.

The subject is gležanj, which is singular, so the verb is singular too.

The basic pattern is:

• ja se oporavljam = I am recovering
• ti se oporavljaš = you are recovering
• on/ona/ono se oporavlja = he/she/it is recovering

Since gležanj is treated as he/it grammatically, Croatian uses se oporavlja.

Yes, polako here means slowly.

It is an adverb, so it modifies the verb:

• se oporavlja = is recovering
• se polako oporavlja = is recovering slowly

Depending on context, polako can also sometimes suggest gradually or little by little, which fits this sentence very well.

Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The sentence:

• Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja.

could also appear as:

• Moj se gležanj polako oporavlja.
• Polako se moj gležanj oporavlja.
• Gležanj mi se polako oporavlja.

These versions are not all equally neutral, but they are possible. Croatian changes word order for emphasis, rhythm, and style more freely than English.

The most neutral version is close to the original.

Croatian se is a clitic, which means it tends to go in an early position in the sentence, usually near the beginning, not at the end.

So Croatian prefers:

• Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja.

not:

• Moj gležanj polako oporavlja se.

That final position sounds wrong in standard Croatian.

Clitics like se, mi, ti, ga, je, and similar short words often follow the first stressed element or come very early in the clause.

Yes, absolutely.

• Moj gležanj se polako oporavlja.
• Gležanj mi se polako oporavlja.

Both mean My ankle is slowly recovering.

The second version uses mi = to me / my in a possessive sense. This is extremely common with body parts, health, and personal states.

Many native speakers might actually prefer Gležanj mi se polako oporavlja in everyday conversation.

Because Croatian does not need a separate auxiliary verb like English is for this kind of present-tense sentence.

English says:

• My ankle is recovering

Croatian simply uses the present tense verb:

• Moj gležanj se oporavlja

So the meaning of is recovering is built into se oporavlja.

Gležanj is masculine.

You can tell from the possessive adjective too:

• moj gležanj = masculine singular

Compare:

• moj prst = my finger
• moja ruka = my hand
• moje koljeno = my knee

So moj agrees with the masculine noun gležanj.

A rough guide for English speakers:

• gle sounds a bit like gleh
• ž sounds like the s in measure
• anj has a soft ny-like sound at the end

So gležanj is approximately:

GLEH-zhany

That is only an approximation, but the key sounds are:

• ž = like measure
• nj = like ny in canyon for many speakers

The form in the sentence is oporavlja, but the dictionary form you should learn is:

• oporavljati se = imperfective
• oporaviti se = perfective

These form an aspect pair.

That is important because Croatian verbs often come in pairs:

• one for an ongoing/repeated process
• one for a completed result

In this sentence, the ongoing process is what matters, so oporavljati se is the right base verb.

Yes, it is natural and correct.

That said, in everyday speech, many speakers might also say:

• Gležanj mi se polako oporavlja.

This can sound slightly more idiomatic because Croatian often uses dative possession with body parts.

So the original sentence is good, but it is useful to know that there is another very common native-like option.