'It's great fun to play with somebody.' vs 'It's great fun playing with somebody.'

Question

I wonder if anyone here can help: 'It's great fun to play with him' and 'It's great fun playing with him'. Are they both correct? I feel the second one sounds more natural, but how about the first one? Many thanks!

Answer 1

They are both correct.

Whether one is more 'natural' than the other may depend on the context.

Consider this (grammatically correct) lyric from a very popular 90's song:

It's fun to lose and to pretend.

The singer uses the infinitive here because the emphasized syllables fit well with the tune.

However, this is also correct:

It's fun losing and pretending.

Hope this helps!