diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index 59ac29680..0c08176e2 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -7570,10 +7570,14 @@ void Tokenizer::syntaxError(const Token *tok) const
 void Tokenizer::syntaxError(const Token *tok, char c) const
 {
     printDebugOutput(0);
-    throw InternalError(tok,
-                        std::string("Invalid number of character '") + c + "' " +
-                        "when these macros are defined: '" + _configuration + "'.",
-                        InternalError::SYNTAX);
+    if (_configuration.empty())
+        throw InternalError(tok,
+                            std::string("Invalid number of character '") + c + "' when no macros are defined.",
+                            InternalError::SYNTAX);
+    else
+        throw InternalError(tok,
+                            std::string("Invalid number of character '") + c + "' when these macros are defined: '" + _configuration + "'.",
+                            InternalError::SYNTAX);
 }
 
 void Tokenizer::unhandled_macro_class_x_y(const Token *tok) const
diff --git a/samples/syntaxError/out.txt b/samples/syntaxError/out.txt
index 059c1c86c..8f0626044 100644
--- a/samples/syntaxError/out.txt
+++ b/samples/syntaxError/out.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-[samples\syntaxError\bad.c:2]: (error) Invalid number of character '{' when these macros are defined: ''.
+[samples\syntaxError\bad.c:2]: (error) Invalid number of character '{' when no macros are defined.
diff --git a/test/testgarbage.cpp b/test/testgarbage.cpp
index 4a1b10432..4f7087ad9 100644
--- a/test/testgarbage.cpp
+++ b/test/testgarbage.cpp
@@ -1073,7 +1073,7 @@ private:
                 tokenizer.tokenize(istr, "test.cpp");
                 assertThrowFail(__FILE__, __LINE__);
             } catch (InternalError& e) {
-                ASSERT_EQUALS("Invalid number of character '(' when these macros are defined: ''.", e.errorMessage);
+                ASSERT_EQUALS("Invalid number of character '(' when no macros are defined.", e.errorMessage);
                 ASSERT_EQUALS("syntaxError", e.id);
                 ASSERT_EQUALS(2, e.token->linenr());
             }