Learn Polish: Ten samochód jest czerwony.

In Polish, the word for "this" changes depending on the gender of the noun it goes with. Because samochód (car) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form Ten. If you were talking about a feminine noun, you would use Ta, and for a neuter noun, you would use To.

Why does the adjective czerwony end in -y?

Adjectives in Polish must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since samochód is masculine, the adjective takes the standard masculine ending -y. If the noun were feminine, the adjective would end in -a (making it czerwona).

If I wanted to say "This is a red car", would I use exactly the same words?

No, the sentence structure changes slightly. "This car is red" is Ten samochód jest czerwony. But if you want to say "This is a red car", you use the fixed phrase To jest (This is) and say To jest czerwony samochód.

Do I have to keep the words in this exact order?

Polish word order is flexible, so you could technically say Czerwony jest ten samochód if you really wanted to emphasize the color. However, for a simple, neutral statement, following the English-like order (Subject + Verb + Adjective) is the most natural and common way to speak.