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Lui è un professionista molto serio.

Lui è un professionista molto serio.
He is a very serious professional.
From Lesson 248:Nouns ending in -ista (-ista, -isti, -iste)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Lui è un professionista molto serio.

Why does professionista end in -a if the sentence is about a man (Lui)?
Nouns ending in -ista (like professionista, turista, dentista) are special: they use the exact same -a ending for both men and women in the singular. You can tell this one is masculine because of the pronoun Lui and the masculine article un.
If the noun ends in -a, why does the adjective serio end in -o?
Adjectives always agree with the noun's actual gender, not just its spelling. Even though professionista ends in -a, we know from Lui and un that it is a masculine noun in this sentence. Therefore, the adjective takes the normal masculine singular ending, becoming serio.
How would you say "They are very serious professionals" if referring to a group of men?
It would be Loro sono professionisti molto seri. While -ista words are identical for men and women in the singular, they have different endings in the plural. Masculine becomes -isti (professionisti) and feminine becomes -iste (professioniste).
Why doesn't molto change its ending here?
In this sentence, molto is an adverb meaning "very" because it describes the adjective serio. Adverbs are invariable, meaning their endings never change. You only change the ending of molto when it acts as an adjective meaning "a lot of" or "many" (for example, molti professionisti).

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