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Many agree that there's no difference "between start/begin + infinitive" and "start/begin + gerund."

But in sentences like "When we first started to talk/started talking," the gerund version is a lot more common.

Maybe grammatically, both versions are correct. But colloquially, the gerund version is more common?

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    Yes, I think the gerund version is more informal. My first thought was that it started to rain was more idiomatic than it started raining, but that may be because I've often seen it in books, and in real life people would be just as likely to say started raining.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 2, 2021 at 7:57

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Nope, there are zero differences. "We first started talking" is easier to say than "we first started to talk".

Non-native has this problem of analysing things too deeply

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    Can you povide some sources to justify this as it does not seem correct to me.
    – mdewey
    Commented Oct 2, 2021 at 12:48

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