English and Russian tenses

There is no sequence of tenses in Russian, that’s why Present tenses are used in the subordinate clause if the action expressed in it is simultaneous with the action expressed in the principal clause.

Everybody knew he planned such trips.

Все знали, что он планирует такие поездки.

Everybody knew he was planning a trip.

Все знали, что он планирует поездку.

Everybody knew he had been planning it for a long time.

Все знали, что он уже давно планирует ее.

If the action expressed in the subordinate clause is prior to that in the principal clause, past tenses are used in Russian:

Everybody knew who had planned the trip.

Все знали, кто спланировал поездку.

Everybody knew he had been planning (had planned) such trips before.

Все знали, что он планировал такие поездки раньше.

The action, that is future in relation to the action of the principal clause, is expressed by a future tense in Russian:

Everybody knew who would plan the trip.

Все знали, кто будет планировать поездку.

PASSIVE VOICE

Voice is the grammatical category of the verb denoting the relationship between the action or state expressed by the predicate and the person or thing expressed by the subject.

The Active Voice shows that the subject denotes the doer (the agent) of the action expressed by the predicate.

The Passive Voice shows that the subject of the sentence denotes a person or a thing affected by the action of the predicate.