Learn Polish: Ten krawat jest za długi.

When the word za is placed right before an adjective (like długi) or an adverb, it translates to "too" (meaning an excessive amount). While it does mean "behind" or "for" in other contexts, here it acts just like the English word "too" in "too long".

Is there another word for "too" that I can use instead of za?

Yes, you can also use zbyt. Saying Ten krawat jest zbyt długi means exactly the same thing. Za is very common in everyday, casual speech, while zbyt is just a tiny bit more formal, but both are perfectly fine to use here.

Why do we use ten and długi instead of ta and długa?

The noun krawat (tie) is masculine. Because of this, the word for "this" must be in its masculine form (ten instead of the feminine ta) and the adjective must also be masculine (długi instead of the feminine długa).

Why does the sentence start with ten instead of to?

We use ten because we are saying "this tie" (ten krawat), pointing specifically at a masculine noun. If you wanted to say "This IS a tie" you would use the general pointer to, as in To jest krawat. Because our sentence says "This tie is...", we must use the matching masculine word ten.