"To know her and to live with her are two distinctly different situations". or "Knowing her and living with her are two distinctly different situations".
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What exactly is your problem with those? Both are grammatical and idiomatic.– RobustoApr 21, 2020 at 17:10
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Does this answer your question? "Being" or "to be"?. Actually, gerund versus infinitive is a closer match, with to-infinitive and ing-form in sentence-initial position, but was closed as a duplicate of this.– Edwin AshworthApr 21, 2020 at 18:30
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@John Lawler stated as part of a comment: 'There are general, very rough, guidelines for complement usage: gerunds correspond to events, while infinitives correspond to situation types. That-clauses correspond to propositions.'– Edwin AshworthApr 21, 2020 at 18:37
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@Robusto I'd like to know if both are correct or if there is any rule which explains when I should use one way or the other one.– DouglasApr 21, 2020 at 18:46
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Both are fine. I'd use the first one for a rhetorically stronger or more formal statement. The second is more conversational.– RobustoApr 21, 2020 at 18:49
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