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If I have just met my friend's girlfriend, which of these would be more idiomatic?

It was good meeting your girlfriend.
It was good to meet your girlfriend. She seems nice.

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  • The two forms are equivalent and interchangeable in your cited context. But the infinitive form to see is somewhat more common than the continuous participle seeing. In closely related contexts such as I was sorry to see you leave, the infinitive form is much more common than I was sorry seeing you leave. Jan 27, 2022 at 18:12

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There can be a slight difference in meaning between the two, where the the first form would mean that the meeting itself was good, whereas the second would mean that the fact that the meeting took place was good. Your example doesn't really demonstrate the difference, mainly because of that final sentence which I'm assuming is to be appended to both options. But without that sentence nullifying the effect I'm talking about, we might have:

It was good meeting your girlfriend. She has a fascinating job; I hope we can all hang out more.

vs

It was good to meet your girlfriend. It confirmed what I already suspected; with her politics, she and I would be better not to meet again if you don't mind.

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