afford + ing?
I've been taught that "afford + infinitive" is correct but I came across a sentence with "afford + gerund."

That's the sentence:
"We can’t afford having our customers being held up by downtime,” he adds.

Is this correct?

Question

afford + ing?
I've been taught that "afford + infinitive" is correct but I came across a sentence with "afford + gerund."

That's the sentence:
"We can’t afford having our customers being held up by downtime,” he adds.

Is this correct?

Answer

It's okay for casual speech, but the sentence would sound better with "afford" + infinitive.  The use of "being" is grammatically wrong, though.  It should really say, "We can’t afford to have our customers BE held up by downtime."

Because this is a quote, the mistake is understandable and not very important.  People often make small grammar errors in speech.

Answer

From my point of view, afford + infinitive and afford + gerund are basically the same and can be used interchangeably.

In fact your sentence would be correct even if you used afford + infinitive and would still have the same meaning.

Answer

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/afford

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