Learn Hardcore Hausa: Budurwar ta ce tana son saurayin ya zo ya haɗu da dangi a biki. - The young woman said she wants the young man to come and meet the relatives at the celebration.

So in this sentence, Budurwar means “the young woman / the girlfriend”, not just “a young woman.”
The -r is the definite marker attached to a feminine noun ending in -a.

What is the role of ta in Budurwar ta ce …? Why not just say Budurwar ce …?

In Budurwar ta ce …, the ta is a subject pronoun meaning “she”, and ce is the verb “said.” So:

Budurwar ta ce … = The (young) woman, she said … → The young woman said …

The pattern is:

[Noun] + [subject pronoun] + [verb]
Budurwar ta ce … = The young woman she-said …

You cannot drop ta here; ce by itself is not a subject pronoun.
If you said Budurwar ce …, that would be a completely different construction, roughly “It is the girl who …” (a focus/copula structure), not “The girl said …”.

Why do we have ta again inside tana son …? Isn’t that repeating the subject?

Yes, Hausa repeats subject markers in each clause.

Break the sentence into clauses:

Budurwar ta ce … = The girl said …
tana son saurayin ya zo … = she wants the boyfriend to come …

In clause 2, ta- in tana is again “she”:

ta (she) + na (imperfective marker “is/was doing”) → tana
tana son … = she wants/likes … or she is wanting/liking …

So ta is needed in each independent clause (or important subclause). Hausa does not rely on a single subject mention at the beginning of a long sentence the way English can; it repeats the subject markers grammatically.

What’s the difference between so and son in tana son saurayin ya zo …?

The base noun/verb is so = liking, love, desire, to like/want.

When so is followed by a noun or clause, it typically appears as son, because so + n behaves like a kind of “of” / possessive linker:

so + abin sha → son abin sha = desire of a drink / wanting a drink
so + shi → son shi = liking him
so + saurayin ya zo → son saurayin ya zo = want(ing) that the boyfriend should come

So:

tana so by itself = she likes / she wants (something, implied)
tana son saurayin ya zo = she wants (that) the boyfriend should come

Grammatically, son behaves like “wanting of …” or “love of …”, linking so to whatever is wanted or liked.

Could we say tana so saurayin ya zo instead of tana son saurayin ya zo? Is there any difference?

You will hear both forms, but:

tana son saurayin ya zo is the more standard / clearly correct form in formal or careful Hausa.
tana so saurayin ya zo occurs in speech, but it can sound slightly less careful, because the -n linker is expected before the noun clause.

Think of son as the “proper” linker:

tana son shi = she likes him
tana son zuwa = she likes/ wants to go
tana son saurayin ya zo = she wants the boyfriend to come

Using son makes it clearer that what follows is the object of her wanting/liking.

Why is it saurayin and not just saurayi in son saurayin ya zo?

saurayi = young man, boyfriend, suitor (indefinite)
saurayin = the young man / the boyfriend (definite form with -n)

Again, Hausa uses final -n/-r for definiteness:

masculine: saurayi → saurayin
feminine: budurwa → budurwar

In this context, saurayin is “the boyfriend”, probably a specific person previously known in the conversation. Saying just saurayi there would sound like “some boyfriend or other,” which is not what is meant.

How does ya zo ya haɗu work? Why is ya repeated before both verbs?

The verb sequence is:

ya zo = that he should come / he came
ya haɗu da dangi = that he should meet with the family / he met with the family

In Hausa, when you have two separate actions, each normally gets its own subject marker:

ya zo ya haɗu = that he should come and (then) meet
literally: he-comes, he-meets

If you drop the second ya and say ya zo haɗu, it sounds ungrammatical or very odd in standard Hausa. Each verb in a chain usually needs its own subject agreement marker, especially when they are sequential actions.

Is ya zo past tense here (he came), or is it something like a subjunctive (that he come)?

Formally, ya zo is the perfective form, which can express:

simple past: ya zo jiya = he came yesterday
or, in subordinate clauses after verbs of wanting/saying, a subjunctive-like “should come”:
- tana son ya zo = she wants him to come

In tana son saurayin ya zo, the meaning is subjunctive / desired action:

she wants the boyfriend to come (and meet the family)

So the form is the same as past (perfective), but the function here is “that he (should) come,” because it’s embedded under tana son (“she wants”).

What does haɗu da mean? Is da here a preposition?

Yes. The expression:

haɗu da [someone] = to meet (with) someone

Here:

ya haɗu da dangi = that he should meet with the family / relatives

da is a very multifunctional word in Hausa; here it functions like “with”:

haɗu da aboki = meet a friend / meet with a friend
haɗu da dangi = meet (with) the family

Does dangi mean “family” like parents and siblings, or something broader?

dangi generally means relatives / kin / extended family, not just the nuclear family.

Depending on context, it can include:

parents, siblings
uncles, aunts, cousins
sometimes even wider clan/kin-group

In the context of meeting the family at a ceremony, dangi typically implies a wider circle of relatives, not just mum and dad.

What kind of event is biki? Does it specifically mean “wedding”?

biki is a general word for ceremony, celebration, festivity. Common types include:

bikin aure = wedding ceremony
bikin suna = naming ceremony (for a baby)

On its own, a biki can be:

at a ceremony
at a party / celebration

In many everyday contexts, especially when talking about couples, it often implies a wedding or engagement-related event, but strictly speaking it just means “ceremony/festivity.”

Could the sentence be rephrased more simply as Budurwar ta ce tana son ya zo ya haɗu da dangi a biki (without saurayin)? Would that still be correct?

Yes, you could say:

Budurwar ta ce tana son ya zo ya haɗu da dangi a biki.
= The girl said she wants him to come and meet the family at the ceremony.

This is grammatical. In that case:

ya refers back to some previously mentioned or obvious “he” (e.g., her boyfriend).

Including saurayin inside the clause as in the original sentence:

tana son saurayin ya zo ya haɗu da dangi a biki

makes the subject explicit: it’s the boyfriend who should come and meet the family. Without saurayin, the identity of ya depends entirely on context.

Why don’t we need cewa (that) after ta ce? Could we say Budurwar ta ce cewa tana son …?

Both are possible:

Budurwar ta ce tana son saurayin ya zo …
Budurwar ta ce cewa tana son saurayin ya zo …

cewa roughly corresponds to English “that” introducing a reported clause:

She said that she wants …

In Hausa, cewa is optional in many cases and is often omitted in fluent speech, especially when the clause following ce is long and clearly a reported statement.

So your original sentence without cewa is perfectly natural; adding cewa is more explicit but not required.