Can Someone explain this to me please? thanks

[seanblue]

@RAIJIN

The students had finished copying. also the homework was written from the blackboard. Is that correct?

Did you read the article that both @Mordoc and I posted about relative clauses? If you don’t understand relative clauses you won’t be able to understand the meaning of this sentence. And as Leebo said, multiple correct translations have already been posted in this thread.

@seanblue

The students also finished copying down the homework that was written on the blackboard.

@bnheise

The students had also finished copying the homework that was written on the blackboard.

@oyotta

The students had finished copying (even/also) the homework (items) that were written on the blackboard.

@Mordoc

The students had finished copying the homework that was written on the blackboard

[DerRittmeister]

@oyotta

I do have a question though. Is it ambiguous which predicate 黒板に is attached to or would it always be understood to be part of the relative clause? i naturally read it that way (attached to the relative clause) but I don’t know if it always works like that.

I don’t think any Japanese would understand it as the students writing on the blackboard.
In such case I am certain 黒板に would stand between 宿題も and 写しおわっていた , but then again 学生達は書かれた宿題も sounds strange and you wonder where the homework was written.

[seanblue]

@DerRittmeister

In such case I am certain 黒板に would stand between 宿題も and 写しおわっていた

Let’s take a simpler version of the sentence, one that would clearly mean a student copied the homework to the blackboard. I removed the relative clause and the 達 and changed も to を. Here are two versions:

1. 学生は黒板に宿題を写した.
2. 学生は宿題を黒板に写した.

I would argue that the first is more natural/neutral and the second one emphasizes that the blackboard was the place the homework was copied to.

So back to the original sentence. Are you saying that in this case (for the second meaning Leebo described above) you’d specifically want to emphasize that the blackboard was the place the homework was copied to? Or are you saying you’d do that just to remove the ambiguity with the relative clause? Or something else?

[DerRittmeister]

@seanblue

1. 学生は黒板に宿題を写した.
2. 学生は宿題を黒板に写した.

I would argue that the first is more natural/neutral and the second one emphasizes that the blackboard was the place the homework was copied to.

@seanblue

Or something else?

Bear in mind I am no expert at grammar and I have barely studied it. I just judge whether the sentence sounds natural or not.
I think the key here is the 書かれた part. Your simplified sentences both work, but I believe if you add 書かれた before 宿題, your 2 sentences will have different meanings.

1 学生は黒板に宿題を写した. = emphasizes the homework
2 学生は宿題を黒板に写した. = emphasizes the blackboard
Both have the same meaning. The students copied the homework to the blackboard.

3 学生は黒板に書かれた宿題を写した. = can only mean “… the homework that was written on the blackboard”
4 学生は書かれた宿題を黒板に写した. = can only mean “… copied the homework that was written (somewhere we don’t know) to the blackboard”

I would argue no 4 sounds strange unless you have some context as to where the homework was written. If you add “ノートに書かれた宿題” (the homework that was written in the notes) it sounds better.