Recibirlos vs. visitarme

[expatCanuck]

I'm using (among other resources) Mosalingua to learn Spanish. I like it and find it helpful, but some constructions I find confusing.

For example, for "I hope that you will come visit me someday.", it offers

Espero recibirlos algún día en mi casa.

rather than

Espero que algún día venir a visitarme.

The latter makes more sense to me. Is the former truly accurate, but just a more formal/polite construction? Or a Castilian vs. Latin American difference?

(I read the former more as "I hope to receive/welcome you/them in my home someday.")

[aleCcowaN]

Espero que vengas/vengan a visitarme algún día

vengas -one person-
vengan -two or more people-

That's the usual phrase. The word order in your original sentence is also correct. Notice that Spanish has a specific tense and mood to deal with verbs that are not related to the action in the sentence (like "to go" in English "I want you to go"). We don't use infinitive for this purpose ("venir") but present subjunctive ("venga, vengas, venga, vengamos, vengáis, vengan").

Espero recibirlos algún día en mi casa.

it's not bad, but somewhat it implies you are prevented from doing that now. It doesn't sound as "just call me to tell me when you're coming" but "tell me when would you like to come visit and we'll discuss if it's possible".