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El elefante camina por la sabana y lo vemos disfrutar del agua.

El elefante camina por la sabana y lo vemos disfrutar del agua.
The elephant walks through the savanna and we see him enjoying the water.
From Lesson 288:Verbs of perception·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El elefante camina por la sabana y lo vemos disfrutar del agua.

Why does the Spanish sentence use the infinitive disfrutar when the English translation says "enjoying"?
With verbs of physical perception like ver (to see), you can use an infinitive to state that you saw the action happen, or a gerund (like disfrutando) to emphasize an action currently in progress. Both are correct here! When Spanish uses the infinitive after a perception verb, it often translates naturally to an "-ing" word in English.
Why is the pronoun lo placed before vemos instead of attached to disfrutar?
In this specific structure (verb of perception + infinitive), the direct object pronoun—here, lo for the elephant—belongs to the perception verb (vemos). Because vemos is a conjugated verb, the pronoun must go right before it: lo vemos disfrutar. You cannot attach it to the infinitive in this case.
Why do we use por instead of para in por la sabana?
Por is used to express movement through, along, or around a physical space. Since the elephant is walking through the savanna, por is the correct choice. If you used para, it would mean the elephant is walking toward the savanna as a final destination.
Why is it del agua? Isn't agua a feminine word?
You are right that agua is feminine! However, because it starts with a stressed "a" sound, Spanish uses the singular masculine article el to avoid the awkward double "a" sound of "la agua". When the preposition de meets the article el, they always combine to form the contraction del. If the word were plural, it would go back to the feminine article: las aguas.
Why is there a de after disfrutar?
You can use the verb disfrutar with or without the preposition de. Both disfrutar del agua and disfrutar el agua mean "to enjoy the water" and both are completely correct. Using de is very common and sounds completely natural to native speakers.

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