Breakdown of Ne hanno approfittato mentre lavoravano qui.
qui
here
avere
to have
lavorare
to work
mentre
while
Questions & Answers about Ne hanno approfittato mentre lavoravano qui.
Why does this sentence use hanno instead of sono with the pronominal verb?
Many pronominal verbs you are learning right now, like accorgersene or pentirsene, are reflexive-based and take essere in the past tense. However, approfittarne is built from the standard verb approfittare, which takes avere. Because there is no reflexive pronoun (si) involved here, it keeps avere as its auxiliary.
We learned that past participles sometimes agree with ne. Why does approfittato end in -o regardless of what they took advantage of?
Past participles only agree with ne when ne replaces a direct object indicating quantity. Here, ne replaces an indirect object phrase starting with di (because the core expression is approfittare di). When ne replaces a di phrase instead of a quantity, the past participle does not change and always ends in -o.
Since the dictionary form is approfittarne, why isn't ne attached to the end of the verb here?
When you learn these verbs, they are listed in their infinitive form with the pronoun attached to the end. But when you conjugate the verb in a standard tense like the passato prossimo, the pronoun must detach and move in front of the conjugated auxiliary verb. That is why the ne moves to the very beginning to form ne hanno approfittato.