The purpose of the article is to identify similarities and differences in the semantics and grammatical properties of sentences with the subject's dative and nouns in the predicative function in German and Russian. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the work shows for the first time the semantic and grammatical properties of sentences with the subject's dative and nouns in the predicative function in German and Russian. As a result, it is shown that constructions with the subject's dative and nouns in the predicative function have both common and distinctive properties. Russian constructions have a lower degree of nominativeness, and those meanings that are transmitted by nouns in the function of the predicative in German are often expressed by state predicates or reflexive verbs. The grammatical properties of constructions with the subject's dative and nouns in the predicative function are that they are always anthropocentric, i.e. the role of the experimenter is always played by a person; they mark a certain state of the experiencer; the experiencer himself does not have a privileged status, he is not an active figure and his condition does not depend on himself. The passive status of the subject explains the predominant use of constructions with nouns in the predicative function in such type of contexts in which it is necessary to emphasize the speaker's non-involvement in the emergence of his state and to show the importance of circumstances.
