Learn Italian: Naturalmente, il candidato ha presentato bene il progetto. - Of course, the candidate presented the project well.

It comes from the adjective naturale. Usually, you form an adverb by taking the feminine singular form of an adjective and adding -mente. However, when an adjective ends in -le or -re (like naturale), you drop the final e before adding the suffix. So, naturale becomes naturalmente (not naturalemente).

The word naturalmente literally means "naturally," so why is it translated as "of course" here?

While it can mean "naturally" (as in "in a natural way"), Italians frequently use naturalmente as an introductory word to mean "of course," "obviously," or "needless to say." It sets the tone for the statement, making "of course" the most accurate translation in this context.

Why does bene go between the verb and the direct object (il progetto) instead of at the end of the sentence?

In Italian, adverbs of manner like bene typically go immediately after the verb they modify. With a compound tense like the passato prossimo (ha presentato), the adverb goes right after the past participle. Placing it after the direct object (ha presentato il progetto bene) sounds unnatural in Italian, even though that is the standard word order in English.

Does the past participle presentato need to change its ending to agree with il progetto?