La señora disfrutaba de que.. Why use "DE" here?

Question

Hola! Estaba leyendo y encontré una frase que no entiendo.

La señora disfrutaba de que la televisión la tuviera hipnotizada

"The lady enjoyed the fact that the telly hypnotized (had her hypnotized)**

Bueno, no es que no lo entiendo, es que no se por qué se usa la palabra "de" antes de la palabra "que". ¿Por qué solo se usa "que" ?

Porfavor corrige mi español gracias

"una frase". "frase" is feminine. - renaerules, Mar 11, 2011

typo: hypnotized - renaerules, Mar 11, 2011

por qué - renaerules, Mar 11, 2011

gracias - dewclaw, Mar 11, 2011

Answer 1

Hola dew!

The expression is "disfrutar de (algo)," meaning "to enjoy (something)."

In your sentence: La señora disfrutaba de que la televisión la tuviera hipnotizada, the "algo" or "something" is the fact that the TV left her hypnotized.

This is short, since I'm not a fan of long explanations, but I'm sure you'll make sense out of this.

This answer should make the most sense to a native English speaker. - lorenzo9, Mar 11, 2011

Answer 2

"de que" = "(of) that"

If you are trying to distinguish between many characteristics of an object "de que" is used. It is like saying, "Of that the telly provides, the lady likes the fact that it hypnotizes her."

Answer 3

I am not the best person to be able to explain the intricacies of Spanish Grammar, but if you reword the sentence in English it might help you see why "de que" is used:

What the lady enjoyed about the telly was that it hypnotized her.

Does this help you out?

er... not really, but thanks anyway - dewclaw, Mar 11, 2011