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I professionisti hanno lavorato bene.

I professionisti hanno lavorato bene.
The professionals worked well.
From Lesson 248:Nouns ending in -ista (-ista, -isti, -iste)·Italian

Breakdown of I professionisti hanno lavorato bene.

avere
to have
lavorare
to work
bene
well
il professionista
the professional

Questions & Answers about I professionisti hanno lavorato bene.

Why is the plural professionisti ending in -i if the singular is professionista?
Words ending in -ista are a special group! In the singular, they end in -a for both masculine and feminine (il professionista, la professionista). But in the plural, they follow regular gender rules: masculine or mixed groups end in -i (i professionisti), and exclusively female groups end in -e (le professioniste).
How can we tell from this sentence that the group of professionals isn't all female?
We can tell by looking at the article and the noun ending. The masculine plural article i and the ending -i in professionisti tell us this is either an all-male group or a mixed-gender group. If they were all women, the sentence would be Le professioniste hanno lavorato bene.
Since I professionisti is plural, why is it lavorato and not lavorati?
Because the auxiliary verb is avere (hanno). When forming the passato prossimo (present perfect) with avere, the past participle (lavorato) stays in its default -o form and does not change to match the subject. It would only change to agree with the subject if the auxiliary verb were essere.
Could I put bene between the two parts of the verb, like hanno bene lavorato?
No, in Italian, adverbs of manner like bene (well) or male (badly) generally go right after the past participle in compound tenses. The correct natural order is hanno lavorato bene, keeping the auxiliary verb and the past participle together.

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