You have likely seen the pronoun ne used to replace quantities (meaning "some of it" or "of them"). However, ne can also act as a locative pronoun.
In this role, ne indicates movement away from a place. It replaces a phrase that answers "from where?" and translates to "from there" or "out of it". You will frequently see it paired with verbs of departure, such as uscire (to go out), scappare (to escape), and fuggire (to flee).
Before conjugated verbs
Like other clitic pronouns, ne goes immediately before a conjugated verb. This applies across all tenses and moods, including the present, the conditional, or the subjunctive:
| The maze is a trap, but the girl gets out of it and frees herself. | Il labirinto è una trappola, ma la ragazza ne esce e si libera. |
| The prison tunnel is narrow, but we escape from it toward safety. | Il tunnel della prigione è stretto, ma ne scappiamo verso la salvezza. |
| The alley is dark; if we got out of there, we would be free. | Il vicolo è buio; se ne uscissimo saremmo liberi. |
Attached to the infinitive
When a sentence features an infinitive verb (often following a modal verb like volere, potere, or dovere), the pronoun ne attaches directly to the end of the infinitive.
To attach the pronoun, simply drop the final -e of the infinitive before adding ne. For example, uscire becomes uscirne, and fuggire becomes fuggirne:
| The tunnel is narrow and I want to get out of there immediately. | Il tunnel è stretto e voglio uscirne subito. |
| The prison has an old lock, so we can escape from there. | La prigione ha una vecchia serratura, quindi possiamo fuggirne. |
| The thief breaks the lock because he wants to escape from there. | Il ladro rompe la serratura perché vuole scapparne. |