diff --git a/Lib/_pyrepl/simple_interact.py b/Lib/_pyrepl/simple_interact.py
index b5f182ebfe710b..11e831c1d6c5d4 100644
--- a/Lib/_pyrepl/simple_interact.py
+++ b/Lib/_pyrepl/simple_interact.py
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ def runsource(self, source, filename="<input>", symbol="single"):
             item = wrapper([stmt])
             try:
                 code = compile(item, filename, the_symbol, dont_inherit=True)
-            except (OverflowError, ValueError):
+            except (OverflowError, ValueError, SyntaxError):
                     self.showsyntaxerror(filename)
                     return False