diff --git a/internal/lexer/lexer.go b/internal/lexer/lexer.go
index b51220d30..84b9f6aa9 100644
--- a/internal/lexer/lexer.go
+++ b/internal/lexer/lexer.go
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ type Tokenset struct {
 
 func Split(s string, pipelines bool) (*Tokenset, error) {
 	tokenset, err := split(s, pipelines)
+	if err != nil && err.Error() == "EOF found after escape character" {
+		return Split(s[:len(s)-1], pipelines) // TODO mark this in tokenset
+	}
 	if err != nil && err.Error() == "EOF found when expecting closing quote" {
 		tokenset, err = split(s+`_"`, pipelines)
 		if err == nil {
diff --git a/internal/lexer/lexer_test.go b/internal/lexer/lexer_test.go
index 77bf2b830..1f52d0b5a 100644
--- a/internal/lexer/lexer_test.go
+++ b/internal/lexer/lexer_test.go
@@ -161,4 +161,9 @@ func TestSplit(t *testing.T) {
 		Prefix: `example `,
 		State:  OPEN_SINGLE,
 	})
+
+	_test(`example \`, Tokenset{
+		Tokens: []string{"example", ""},
+		Prefix: `example `,
+	})
 }