diff --git a/build/shared/lib/languages/PDE.properties b/build/shared/lib/languages/PDE.properties
index 1a335b83d..d68177d7d 100644
--- a/build/shared/lib/languages/PDE.properties
+++ b/build/shared/lib/languages/PDE.properties
@@ -360,6 +360,7 @@ editor.status.missing.right_paren = Missing right parenthesis ")"
 editor.status.missing.left_curly_bracket = Missing left curly bracket "{"
 editor.status.missing.right_curly_bracket = Missing right curly bracket "}"
 editor.status.missing.add = Consider adding "%s"
+editor.status.bad_curly_quote = Curly quotes like %s don't work. Use straight quotes. Ctrl-T to autocorrect.
 editor.status.reserved_words = "color" and "int" are reserved words & cannot be used as variable names
 editor.status.undefined_method = The function "%s(%s)" does not exist
 editor.status.undefined_constructor = The constructor "%s(%s)" does not exist
diff --git a/java/src/processing/mode/java/JavaBuild.java b/java/src/processing/mode/java/JavaBuild.java
index 88f6fc3be..e9f84170d 100644
--- a/java/src/processing/mode/java/JavaBuild.java
+++ b/java/src/processing/mode/java/JavaBuild.java
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.Project;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectHelper;
 
 import processing.app.Base;
+import processing.app.Language;
 import processing.app.Library;
 import processing.app.Messages;
 import processing.app.Mode;
@@ -341,9 +342,30 @@ public class JavaBuild {
 
 //      System.err.println("and then she tells me " + tsre.toString());
       // TODO not tested since removing ORO matcher.. ^ could be a problem
-      String mess = "^line (\\d+):(\\d+):\\s";
+      String locationRegex = "^line (\\d+):(\\d+):\\s";
+      String message = tsre.getMessage();
+      String[] m;
 
-      String[] matches = PApplet.match(tsre.toString(), mess);
+      if (null != (m = PApplet.match(tsre.toString(),
+              "unexpected char: (.*)"))) {
+        char c = 0;
+        if (m[1].startsWith("0x")) {     // Hex
+          c = (char) PApplet.unhex(m[1].substring(2));
+        } else if (m[1].length() == 3) { // Quoted
+          c = m[1].charAt(1);
+        } else if (m[1].length() == 1) { // Alone
+          c = m[1].charAt(0);
+        }
+        if (c == '\u201C' || c == '\u201D' || // “”
+            c == '\u2018' || c == '\u2019') { // ‘’
+          message = Language.interpolate("editor.status.bad_curly_quote", c);
+        } else if (c != 0) {
+          message = "Not expecting symbol " + m[1] +
+              ", which is " + Character.getName(c) + ".";
+        }
+      }
+
+      String[] matches = PApplet.match(tsre.toString(), locationRegex);
       if (matches != null) {
         int errorLine = Integer.parseInt(matches[1]) - 1;
         int errorColumn = Integer.parseInt(matches[2]);
@@ -358,7 +380,7 @@ public class JavaBuild {
         }
         errorLine -= sketch.getCode(errorFile).getPreprocOffset();
 
-        throw new SketchException(tsre.getMessage(),
+        throw new SketchException(message,
                                   errorFile, errorLine, errorColumn);
 
       } else {
diff --git a/java/src/processing/mode/java/preproc/PdePreprocessor.java b/java/src/processing/mode/java/preproc/PdePreprocessor.java
index 5a68752d1..ea8723520 100644
--- a/java/src/processing/mode/java/preproc/PdePreprocessor.java
+++ b/java/src/processing/mode/java/preproc/PdePreprocessor.java
@@ -924,9 +924,11 @@ public class PdePreprocessor {
 
     checkForUnterminatedMultilineComment(program);
 
-    if (Preferences.getBoolean("preproc.substitute_unicode")) {
-      program = substituteUnicode(program);
-    }
+    // Removing all the Unicode characters makes detecting and reporting their
+    // preprocessor errors quite hard.
+//    if (Preferences.getBoolean("preproc.substitute_unicode")) {
+//      program = substituteUnicode(program);
+//    }
 
     // For 0215, adding } as a legitimate prefix to the import (along with
     // newline and semicolon) for cases where a tab ends with } and an import
@@ -1478,4 +1480,4 @@ public class PdePreprocessor {
     }
     return sb.toString();
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}