diff --git a/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner.go b/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner.go
index 509abeca57..795f0ac15b 100644
--- a/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner.go
+++ b/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ package scanner
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
 	"go/token"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strconv"
@@ -674,7 +675,7 @@ scanAgain:
 			tok = S.switch3(token.OR, token.OR_ASSIGN, '|', token.LOR)
 		default:
 			if S.mode&AllowIllegalChars == 0 {
-				S.error(offs, "illegal character "+strconv.QuoteRune(ch))
+				S.error(offs, fmt.Sprintf("illegal character %#U", ch))
 			}
 			insertSemi = S.insertSemi // preserve insertSemi info
 		}
diff --git a/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner_test.go b/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner_test.go
index ee1e830a18..c096e2725e 100644
--- a/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner_test.go
+++ b/src/pkg/go/scanner/scanner_test.go
@@ -650,9 +650,9 @@ var errors = []struct {
 	pos int
 	err string
 }{
-	{"\a", token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character '\\a'"},
-	{`#`, token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character '#'"},
-	{`…`, token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character '…'"},
+	{"\a", token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character U+0007"},
+	{`#`, token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character U+0023 '#'"},
+	{`…`, token.ILLEGAL, 0, "illegal character U+2026 '…'"},
 	{`' '`, token.CHAR, 0, ""},
 	{`''`, token.CHAR, 0, "illegal character literal"},
 	{`'\8'`, token.CHAR, 2, "unknown escape sequence"},