"They come to our home sometimes."

Translation: वे कभी कभी हमारे घर आते हैं।

[RobbieCalifornia]

Why is this हमारे not हमारा ?

[Drew769603]

I read someone else's comment that a post position is implied but not stated so becomes oblique eg हमारे घर ko

[OJFord]

It's in the oblique case.

[Dayakara]

I have been checking a Hindi grammar book. The answer is a bit vague. When the goal of motion is a proper noun, a place name, there is no post-postion, but the naked oblique case is usual so मैं आगरे जा रहा हूँ, "I am going to Agra." is normal but मैं आगरा जा रहा हूँ might be used by some speakers. Further and less satisfyingly, when the goal of motion is definite in the speakers mind (as place names always are) no post-position is necessary and in a given case might sound unnatural. I suppose "home" is definite whereas "a house" is not. A number examples were given, but I could not make out a fail-proof rule. I am getting the impression that there is a lot of latitude in Hindi word order and in the use of the post-positions, but Duolingo's system tend to simple right-wrong evaluations of our translations.

[da864606]

आना and जाना force the oblique even if there's no postposition.

[Dayakara]

So would "I am going to that house." be मैं उस घर जा रहा हूँ ?

[OJFord]

Note that in English 'going + infinitive' means that the second verb will happen in the future; 'going to (place)' is often used in this way as a shortened form of 'going to go to (place)'. This doesn't necessarily translate, I think in Hindi जा रहा just means literally going, right now.

[Dayakara]

Thanks, OJFord, my query was about whether the हमारे in हमारे घर जाना shows that the oblique form is used to indicate the goal of motion, and so, उस घर जाना "to go to that house." I was wondering about it because sometimes the direct form indicates an object, but I gather from reading other comments, that with आना and जाना the oblique form is used. So I think is "I am going to the Red Fort." would be मैं लाल क़िले जा रहा हूँ।
What you say about जा रहा corresponds to my working theory. I have had interaction professionally with a good number of Urdu and Hindi speakers and from their errors in otherwise excellent English, I think the difference is in stative verbs as opposed the action verbs. I surmise that Hindi uses the form with रहा to indicate present time, right now, even with stative verbs, producing odd English like "I am thinking you are right" and "I am seeing Bob over there" when an English speaker would say "I think" and "I see." Unlike most languages that I have learned, Hindi like English has a timeless tense वे मकान बनाते हैं and a present time tense वे मकान बना रहे है. The differences in usage remain to be seen.

[alexpouliot]

Is ...घर को आते हैं incorrect? It was not accepted

[Sunnymonie]

I wrote हमारे घर को and it was wrong
?

[OJFord]

Ah I think I replied to you in another question's comments - but just for the sake of others reading here, some verbs (आना, जाना, for two) have implicit motion towards and don't require (I think it would even sound wrong to a native speaker) 'को'.

Actually - it's similar but odder in English, where it depends on the noun: 'go to the cinema', 'then come home'. 'Go home', 'unless you want to come to mine'.

[Sunnymonie]

Thank you