diff --git a/usr.bin/grep/regex/tre-fastmatch.c b/usr.bin/grep/regex/tre-fastmatch.c
index 0881c557ecf..08e17c79b8c 100644
--- a/usr.bin/grep/regex/tre-fastmatch.c
+++ b/usr.bin/grep/regex/tre-fastmatch.c
@@ -621,7 +621,7 @@ tre_compile_fast(fastmatch_t *fg, const tre_char_t *pat, size_t n,
 	  case TRE_CHAR('+'):
 	  case TRE_CHAR('?'):
 	    if ((cflags & REG_EXTENDED) && (i == 0))
-	      continue;
+	      goto badpat;
 	    else if ((cflags & REG_EXTENDED) ^ !escaped)
 	      STORE_CHAR;
 	    else