"How many bathrooms does that house have?"
Translation:Kolik má ten dům koupelen?
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I'm having difficulties with this/that, these/those... I wrote: Kolik koupelen má tento dům? but I'm not sure anymore when to use 'tento'...
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Ten, Ta, To = That Tento, Tato, Toto = This Tenhle, Tahle, Tohle = This (used more when speaking)
Chápeš? Do you understand?
I wrote: "kolik koupelny ma ten dum" and don't really get why that was wrong. Is it the form on koupelna or the word order thatcs the mistake?
Kolik is followed by genitive. Koupelny is either nominative plural or genitive singular. You need the genitive plural form here.
Why cannot it not be, "Kolik koupelen má ten byt'? Why does word order matter in this instance?
Ahh, yes, of course. That was my mistake. Could the word order otherwise be reversed as I have shown it though?
Not at all,
- koupelna -- the room where you wash yourself, it typically contains a wash-basin and either a shower or a bathtub (or both if you're lucky)
- záchod -- the room where you relieve yourself, it contains a porcelain throne :) plus sometimes a small wash-basin
In Czech houses/apartments, they are typically separate rooms, which is convenient when there is more than one person living in the apartment and house - while one is taking an hour-long bath, the other one (the others) can still go number one of two in the záchod-room.
English, because of a mechanism called TABOO, gradually started using the word "bathroom" for the loo/toilet-room even if there's no way to take a bath in it, thus confusing things greatly.
Also, your question mixes cases weirdly -- Are "koupelna" and "záchod" interchangeable? Or keeping the genitive plural used in the exercise: Are "koupelen" and "záchodů" interchangeable?
Since American households combine the two rooms into one, the combo-room would be called "koupelna" in Czech, and we could say "Záchod je v Americe součástí koupelny." (The toilet is a part of the bathroom in America.)