English term (edited): I love swimming / to swim

Like Writeaway, I'm far from convinced this is a BE / AE issue.

As a native Brit, 'swimming' sounds most natural to my ears (though does, of course, imply the potential ambiguity also highlighted by W/A)

But 'to swim' (apart from sounding like a too-literal translation from French!) has a very dated ring about it; I suspect this is the sort of language that might have been used 80 years ago — and sometimes, AE retains usages that have gone out of fashion in the UK.

Do note, too, that if the sentence continues, other factors may need to be taken into account, and certain combinations may sound more natural than others. Here are just a few examples:

I love swimming in the sea
I love to swim at dusk, just as the sun is setting.
I love swimming naked
I love to swim as far out to sea as I can

and so on...

It has nothing, or at least very little, to do with a US/UK divide.

"I love swimming" CAN mean "I love to [go] swimming [myself]," but just as often if not more often it means "I love the sport of swimming" or "I love to watch other people swim" or "I love swimming, and I can't wait to watch the swimming competition at the Olympics". You get the idea. Someone with no legs who has never been in a swimming pool can love swimming, because they like to watch others swim.

"I love to swim" means exclusively that the person speaking loves to go swimming themselves. They may or may not like to watch other people swim.

I'm an American. I invite British/Commonwealth readers to see if the above is not accurate for them, too.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-04-09 15:20:35 GMT)
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The reason for the above is pretty simple: "swimming" is a noun/gerund. "To swim" is a verb/infinitive. As such, you can like swimming as a concept, but using "to swim" means you like to do the action yourself.

If "I like to swim" really does sound dated to UK ears, well then OK. But the larger concept of parts of speech is the same in both varieties of English.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2008-04-09 17:12:10 GMT)
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Please also reread the question, which was "Could native speakers tell me the difference they make between "I love swimming" and "I love to swim" ?

My point is that there is a linguistic, structural difference between the two that is not related to regional variations (this isn't a "garbage can" vs. "rubbish bin" situation). In truth, I would say "I like to go swimming" rather than "I like to swim" (which does sound a bit stilted to these American ears), but the question wasn't "Which is most common?" or even "Which would you use?" but rather "What is the difference between these two phrases I'm providing?"

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Note added at 9 hrs (2008-04-09 22:18:42 GMT)
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I want to make one revision to my original post. "...but just as often if not more often it means...." should be changed to just "... but it can also mean..."

I don't want to try and weigh the frequency of usage. My only point is that "I love to swim" CAN be used to mean something different from "I love swimming," if the user so intends.