U životopisu sam naglasila svoje iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima.

In Croatian, possessive pronouns (moj, tvoj, njegov, njezin, naš, vaš) are often omitted when it is clear from context whose thing it is.

If you’re talking about your own CV, U životopisu is normally understood as In my CV.

You can say it explicitly:

• U mom životopisu – in my CV
• U svom životopisu – in my (own) CV

But in many real-life contexts (job interviews, talking about your application), just U životopisu is natural and not ambiguous, so Croatians tend to leave my implied.

Životopisu is the locative singular form of životopis (masculine noun).

The preposition u can take either:

• locative – when it means in / inside (location)
  
  • u životopisu – in the CV
  • u kući – in the house
• accusative – when it means into (movement)
  
  • u kuću – into the house
  • u grad – into the city

Here, you are describing where something is emphasized (inside the CV, not moving into it), so u + locative → u životopisu.

Sam is the auxiliary verb for I in the past tense (perfect):

• ja sam naglasila – I (fem.) emphasized
• ja sam naglasio – I (masc.) emphasized

In Croatian, this auxiliary usually appears in second position in the clause (after the first stressed element). That’s why we get:

• U životopisu sam naglasila…

Other natural word orders are possible, for example:

• Naglasila sam svoje iskustvo u životopisu.
• Svoje sam iskustvo naglasila u životopisu.

The auxiliary sam tends to stay very early in the sentence, but Croatian word order is flexible; moving words around mostly affects emphasis, not basic meaning.

Naglasila is the past tense (perfect), feminine form of the verb naglasiti (to emphasize, highlight).

• naglasiti – perfective verb (completed action)
• naglasila sam – I (female) have emphasized / I emphasized
• naglasio sam – I (male) have emphasized / I emphasized

The sentence refers to something you already did when writing the CV, so Croatian uses the perfect tense to express a completed past action.

If you said:

• naglašavam – that would be I am emphasizing / I emphasize (ongoing or habitual action in the present), which doesn’t fit talking about a finished CV entry.

Only the past participle changes gender; the rest stays the same:

• Female speaker: U životopisu sam naglasila svoje iskustvo…
• Male speaker: U životopisu sam naglasio svoje iskustvo…

So:

• naglasila – feminine singular
• naglasio – masculine singular

The auxiliary sam and all the other words are unchanged.

Svoje is the reflexive possessive pronoun, used when the owner is the subject of the sentence (here, ja – I).

• svoje iskustvo – my own experience (refers back to the subject)

In this sentence, the (implied) subject is ja:

• (Ja) sam naglasila svoje iskustvo…

So the natural choice is svoje, not moje.

You can say:

• U životopisu sam naglasila moje iskustvo…

but it sounds less natural and can suggest a contrast (my experience vs someone else’s), whereas svoje is the neutral, default option when talking about your own thing.

Croatian iskustvo often works like experience in English when it’s used as a mass noun (general professional experience):

• imam iskustvo u prodaji – I have experience in sales
• naglasila sam svoje iskustvo s… – I highlighted my experience with…

The plural iskustva exists:

• imam različita iskustva – I have various experiences

…but that usually refers to separate, individual experiences, not a general, summarized professional experience. In a CV context, iskustvo in the singular is standard.

The structure iskustvo s + instrumental is a common way to say experience with something:

• iskustvo s uredskim alatima – experience with office tools
• iskustvo s djecom – experience with children
• iskustvo s projektima – experience with projects

The preposition s (or sa) takes the instrumental case. That’s why we get:

• s uredskim alatima (instrumental plural)
• s djecom (instrumental singular form of djeca, which is grammatically plural only)

Both s and sa are forms of the same preposition (with). The basic rule:

• Use s in most situations.
• Use sa mainly:
  • before words starting with s, š, z, ž (to avoid hard-to-pronounce clusters),
  • or where it just sounds more natural.

Examples:

• sa sestrom (not s sestrom)
• sa ženom (not s ženom)

In s uredskim alatima, the next word begins with u, so s is perfectly easy to pronounce. Sa uredskim alatima is not wrong, but s uredskim alatima sounds more natural and is what people normally say.

Both phrases are in the instrumental plural, required by the preposition s.

• uredski alat (office tool) →

  • instrumental plural: uredskim alatima
    • adjective: uredski → uredskim
    • noun: alat → alatima

• strani jezik (foreign language) →

  • instrumental plural: stranim jezicima
    • adjective: strani → stranim
    • noun: jezik → jezicima

Pattern:

• Many adjectives in the plural instrumental end in -im (uredskim, stranim).
• Many masculine nouns in the plural instrumental end in -ima (alatima, jezicima).

So s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima = with office tools and foreign languages (in the instrumental case).

Yes. Croatian word order is quite flexible, and several versions are natural:

• U životopisu sam naglasila svoje iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima.
• Naglasila sam u životopisu svoje iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima.
• Svoje sam iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima naglasila u životopisu.
• U životopisu sam svoje iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima naglasila.

The main constraints:

• The auxiliary sam tends to stay very early in the sentence.
• You shouldn’t separate closely connected elements too strangely (for example, splitting s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima into separate pieces would sound odd).

Differences are mostly in emphasis: what you put nearer the beginning often feels more highlighted.

• životopis – the standard, most common word for a CV / résumé.
• CV – used too, especially in more international/business contexts, but životopis is the native term.
• biografija – literally biography. Usually a more detailed life story (e.g. author biography, profile in a book or article), not the standard name for the job-application document.

For a job application document, životopis is the safest and most correct word.

Yes, you can say:

• U životopisu sam istaknula svoje iskustvo s uredskim alatima i stranim jezicima.

Istaknuti and naglasiti are very close in meaning:

• naglasiti – to emphasize, highlight
• istaknuti – to single out, to emphasize, to bring out

In this context (describing a CV), they’re practically interchangeable. Naglasiti may sound slightly more like verbal emphasis, istaknuti slightly more like bringing something to the forefront, but in everyday usage here, both are fine.