Learn Hardcore Finnish: Minua jännittää kokous huomenna. - I am nervous about the meeting tomorrow.

the person who feels something = in the partitive case
the verb = 3rd person singular
the thing causing the feeling = in the nominative (if it’s a whole, concrete thing)

So:

Minua jännittää kokous huomenna.
≈ The meeting tomorrow makes me nervous. / I’m nervous about the meeting tomorrow.

Literally, it’s closer to “Tomorrow’s meeting excites/nerves me” than to “I am nervous.”
That’s why it’s minua, not minä jännitän.

What form is jännittää, and why isn’t it jännitan or jännittän or something like that?

Jännittää here is:

verb: jännittää
tense: present
person/number: 3rd person singular

So it’s the same form you’d use with hän or se:

Häntä jännittää. – He/She is nervous.
Minua jännittää. – I am nervous.

In this pattern, you don’t conjugate the verb for the experiencer (minä, sinä, hän). The verb stays in 3rd person singular, and the experiencer appears in the partitive:

Minua väsyttää. – I am tired / sleepy.
Sinua pelottaa. – You are scared.
Meitä huvittaa. – We find it funny.

So jännittää is not agreeing with minä; instead, it’s part of an impersonal/psychological construction.

Who is the subject of this sentence? Is minua the subject?

Grammatically, minua is not the subject; it’s a partitive object/experiencer.

In Minua jännittää kokous huomenna:

kokous (meeting) is the subject (nominative)
jännittää is the verb
minua is the experiencer in the partitive (the one who feels the emotion)

You could make the subject clearer by moving things around:

Kokous huomenna jännittää minua.
Tomorrow’s meeting makes me nervous.

So the subject is still kokous, even though the sentence starts with minua to highlight who is affected.

Why is kokous in the basic form (nominative) and not in some other case?

Kokous is in the nominative singular because it’s the subject of the verb jännittää – it is the thing that causes the feeling.

In this pattern:

Experiencer (partitive)
- 3rd person singular verb
  - cause (nominative)

Examples:

Minua väsyttää tämä työ. – This work makes me tired.
Häntä pelottaa pimeä. – The dark scares him/her.
Meitä jännittää tentti. – The exam makes us nervous.

If kokous were in the partitive (kokousta), it would suggest a different structure or meaning (e.g. partial, ongoing, or object of another kind of verb), which is not the case here.

What exactly does jännittää mean? Is it “to be nervous” or “to excite”?

Jännittää covers both ideas: to feel tense / nervous / excited (in a tense way) and to cause that feeling.

In this construction:

Minua jännittää kokous.
→ I am nervous (or tense/excited) about the meeting.

Literally it’s closer to “The meeting makes me tense / gives me nerves.”

It is often used in situations where English might use either to be nervous or to be excited (in a stressed way):

Before a performance, an exam, a speech: Minua jännittää.

Could I say Minä olen hermostunut kokouksesta huomenna instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Minä olen hermostunut kokouksesta huomenna.

Differences:

Style / naturalness
- Minua jännittää kokous huomenna. is very natural, common, and neutral.
- Minä olen hermostunut kokouksesta huomenna. is understandable but feels a bit more formal or bookish, and the phrasing is slightly off; more natural would be Minä olen hermostunut huomisesta kokouksesta.
Focus
- Minua jännittää… naturally focuses on the feeling arising in you right now/around now.
- Olen hermostunut… describes a more general state you’re in.

In everyday speech, Minua jännittää… is usually the default way to say “I’m nervous about…”.

What does huomenna mean exactly? Is it a case form?

Huomenna means tomorrow.

Historically, it is the essive singular of huomen (an old word related to morning), but in modern Finnish it behaves as a fixed adverb meaning tomorrow.

You don’t decline it further in normal use; you just learn huomenna as the standard adverb:

huomenna – tomorrow
eilen – yesterday
tänään – today

Could I also say Huominen kokous jännittää minua? Is that the same?

Yes, you can say:

Huominen kokous jännittää minua.

That is very close in meaning; it’s like saying:

“Tomorrow’s meeting makes me nervous.”

Differences:

Minua jännittää kokous huomenna.
– Starts with the experiencer, emphasizes my feeling.
Huominen kokous jännittää minua.
– Starts with the meeting, emphasizes the meeting as the cause.

Both are correct and natural; the choice is about what you want to highlight in the sentence.

How would this sentence work with other persons, like “you” or “we”?

You keep jännittää in 3rd person singular and change only the partitive pronoun:

Minua jännittää kokous huomenna. – I am nervous…
Sinua jännittää kokous huomenna. – You are nervous…
Häntä jännittää kokous huomenna. – He/She is nervous…
Meitä jännittää kokous huomenna. – We are nervous…
Teitä jännittää kokous huomenna. – You (plural) are nervous…
Heitä jännittää kokous huomenna. – They are nervous…

Notice that jännittää does not change; only the pronoun does, and it is always in the partitive.

How do I say the negative: “I’m not nervous about the meeting tomorrow”?

Use ei + the 3rd person singular of the verb (no personal ending), and keep minua in the partitive:

Minua ei jännitä kokous huomenna.
– I’m not nervous about the meeting tomorrow.

Pattern:

Minua ei väsytä. – I’m not tired.
Häntä ei pelota. – He/She is not scared.
Meitä ei jännitä tentti. – We are not nervous about the exam.

Can I drop some words, like just say Minua jännittää?

Yes.

Minua jännittää.
– I’m nervous (context decides about what).

If it’s already clear from context that you’re talking about the meeting tomorrow, you can leave out kokous huomenna.

You can also drop minua in very casual speech if it’s obvious who is speaking, but that’s more advanced and context-dependent:

(Context: you’re about to go on stage)
Jännittää. – I’m nervous.

The full, clear form is Minua jännittää kokous huomenna; everything else is a simplification or relies on context.