Finnish has a habit worth knowing before the vocabulary. For a good number of feelings, you don't have the emotion — the emotion has you. Minua pelottaa doesn't mean "I fear," it means "it frightens me," with you sitting in the object slot while the fear does the work.
That one pattern covers fear, nervousness, boredom and irritation, and it's the thing learners get wrong for longest. Everything else here is ordinary vocabulary.
Feelings as Nouns
feeling
tunne
joy
ilo
sadness
suru
anger
viha
fear
pelko
love
rakkaus
hope
toivo
longing
kaipaus
shame
häpeä
pride
ylpeys
jealousy
mustasukkaisuus
loneliness
yksinäisyys
worry
huoli
stress
stressi
relief
helpotus
surprise
yllätys
dullness, tedium
tylsyys
gratitude
kiitollisuus
luck, happiness
onni
Practice these words
tunne
Two of these are also names: Toivo and Onni are common men's names in Finland — the abstract noun goes straight on the birth certificate with no dressing up. Ilo is on the name register too, almost always as a middle name.
Describing How You Feel
happy, content
onnellinen
angry
vihainen
worried
huolestunut
nervous
hermostunut
calm
rauhallinen
excited
innostunut
disappointed
pettynyt
surprised
yllättynyt
lonely
yksinäinen
jealous
mustasukkainen
proud
ylpeä
grateful
kiitollinen
stressed
stressaantunut
relieved
helpottunut
in love
rakastunut
Practice these words
onnellinen
Where they come from: more than half of this column is a past participle doing duty as an adjective — pettyä ("to be disappointed") gives pettynyt, rakastua gives rakastunut. The -nut / -nyt ending is the giveaway, and spotting it lets you guess at feelings you haven't learned. The plainer everyday adjectives are in adjectives and opposites.
Minua Pelottaa: When the Feeling Does the Work
These are the ones that don't behave like English. The person goes in the object form and the verb is left to get on with it.
I'm afraid.
Minua pelottaa.
I'm nervous.
Minua jännittää.
I've had enough.
Minua kyllästyttää.
It annoys me.
Minua ärsyttää.
I feel dizzy.
Minua pyörryttää.
I'm ashamed.
Minua hävettää.
Practice these words
Minua pelottaa.
Swap the person, keep the verb: sinua pelottaa is "you're afraid," häntä pelottaa is "he's afraid." The verb never changes form, because it isn't agreeing with you — you're what it's happening to.
Saying How You Feel
I'm happy.
Olen onnellinen.
I'm sad.
Olen surullinen.
I'm afraid of dogs.
Pelkään koiria.
I feel good.
Minulla on hyvä olo.
I feel unwell.
Minulla on paha olo.
I'm bored.
Minulla on tylsää.
I miss you.
Minulla on ikävä sinua.
I'm fed up with this.
Olen kyllästynyt tähän.
I'm in a good mood.
Olen hyvällä tuulella.
I'm in a bad mood.
Olen pahalla tuulella.
Practice these words
Olen onnellinen.
Three constructions, one page: olen onnellinen uses the verb "to be," minulla on hyvä olo uses the minulla on construction, and minua pelottaa uses neither. Finnish distributes feelings across all three, and there's no rule that tells you which — you learn them as phrases.
On mood: tuuli means wind, and hyvällä tuulella is literally "on a good wind." It's the standard way to say what mood you're in.
Asking How Someone Is
How do you feel?
Miltä sinusta tuntuu?
Are you all right?
Oletko kunnossa?
What's wrong?
Mikä on hätänä?
Don't worry.
Älä huoli.
It'll all work out.
Kaikki järjestyy.
No worries.
Ei hätää.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Ikävä kuulla.
Would you like to talk about it?
Haluatko puhua siitä?
Practice these words
Miltä sinusta tuntuu?
A real question, not a greeting: miltä sinusta tuntuu? asks genuinely how you feel, and a Finn who asks it is expecting an answer. The ritual "how are you" of English-speaking small talk doesn't exist here — see small talk in Finnish for what people open with instead.
Why Finnish Puts You in the Object
The minua construction looks exotic and is really a difference of viewpoint. English makes the person the agent of the feeling: I fear, I dread, I worry — as though you were doing it on purpose. Finnish treats a feeling as something that arrives and happens to you, which is arguably closer to how feelings actually work. Minua jännittää before an exam is not a claim about your character; it's a report on the weather inside you.
That also explains why the verb stays put. In minua pelottaa, the grammatical subject isn't you at all — it's the unstated fear — so the verb has nothing to agree with and sits in its third-person form whoever is frightened. Change minua to meitä and the verb doesn't move: meitä pelottaa, "we're afraid."
The practical upshot is that you learn these six as fixed units and the rest of the page as ordinary vocabulary. There is an ordinary verb for fear as well — pelkään koiria, "I'm afraid of dogs" — and nobody will misunderstand you for reaching for it instead. But minua pelottaa is what a Finn says about being frightened right now, and recognising it matters more than producing it, because it turns up constantly and looks like nothing you've learned.
One last thing worth knowing: Finns are not effusive about feelings and the vocabulary gets used sparingly. A good day is ihan hyvä — "quite good" — and that's genuine praise of a day. The restraint you'll meet in compliments applies here too, and reading ihan hyvä as lukewarm is the usual mistake.