diff --git a/syntax/autoconf.nanorc b/syntax/autoconf.nanorc
index 647c244e..9c76b9a9 100644
--- a/syntax/autoconf.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/autoconf.nanorc
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ color cyan "\<[[:upper:]_[:digit:]]+\>"
 color red "\<[-_.0-9]+\>"
 
 # Strings:
-color red ""[^"]*""  "'[^']*'"
+color red ""[^"]*"|'[^']*'"
 
 # Backticks:
 color green "`[^`]*`"
diff --git a/syntax/extra/gentoo.nanorc b/syntax/extra/gentoo.nanorc
index a8643f9e..ea3c21d4 100644
--- a/syntax/extra/gentoo.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/extra/gentoo.nanorc
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ color blue "\<(awk|cat|cd|chmod|chown|cp|echo|env|find|e?grep|ln|make|mkdir|mv|p
 ## Comments (doesn't work that well):
 color yellow "(^|[[:space:]])#.*"
 ## Strings (doesn't work that well):
-color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^\"])*"" "'(\\.|[^'])*'"
+color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^\"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'"
 ## Trailing space is bad!
 color ,green "[[:space:]]+$"
 ## Mixed whitespace is also bad.
diff --git a/syntax/go.nanorc b/syntax/go.nanorc
index 368fd4fc..31dc381d 100644
--- a/syntax/go.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/go.nanorc
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ color red "\<[0-9]+i\>"
 
 # Strings and characters; slightly fuzzy.
 color red "\<(true|false|nil|iota|_)\>"
-color red "'(\\.|[^'])+'"
-color red ""(\\.|[^"])*""
+color red ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])+'"
 color red start=""(\\.|[^"])*\\[[:blank:]]*$" end="^(\\.|[^"])*""
 
 # Comments.
diff --git a/syntax/javascript.nanorc b/syntax/javascript.nanorc
index ecf0b9b6..2f8faa30 100644
--- a/syntax/javascript.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/javascript.nanorc
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ color cyan "\<([0-9]+|0x[0-9A-Fa-f]+)\>"
 color cyan "\<(true|false|null|undefined)\>"
 
 # Strings.
-color brightmagenta ""(\\.|[^"])*"" "'(\\.|[^'])*'" "`(\\.|[^`])*`"
+color brightmagenta ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'|`(\\.|[^`])*`"
 # Comments.
 color brightblue "(^|[[:blank:]])//.*"
 color brightblue start="/\*" end="\*/"
diff --git a/syntax/nftables.nanorc b/syntax/nftables.nanorc
index 7d65c080..b057c7cb 100644
--- a/syntax/nftables.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/nftables.nanorc
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ color cyan "(^|[[:blank:]])#.*"
 color ,green "[[:space:]]+$"
 
 # Strings and others
-color yellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"" "'(\\.|[^'])*'"
+color yellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'"
 color green "[][{}():;|`$<>!=&\]"
 
 # Basic variable names
diff --git a/syntax/php.nanorc b/syntax/php.nanorc
index 2281a14b..ede0760c 100644
--- a/syntax/php.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/php.nanorc
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ color brightcyan "\<(and|or|xor)\>"
 color magenta "\<(break|continue|goto|return)\>"
 
 # Strings.
-color brightyellow ""(\.|[^"])*"" "'(\.|[^'])*'"
+color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'"
 
 # Comments.
 color brightblue "(^|[[:blank:]]+)//.*"
diff --git a/syntax/python.nanorc b/syntax/python.nanorc
index 8fbac146..fd3ff393 100644
--- a/syntax/python.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/python.nanorc
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ color brightcyan "\<(exec|print)([[:blank:]]|$)"
 color brightmagenta "\<(False|None|True)\>"
 
 # Mono-quoted strings.
-color brightgreen "'([^'\]|\\.)*'|'''"
-color brightgreen ""([^"\]|\\.)*"|""""
+color brightgreen "'([^'\]|\\.)*'|"([^"\]|\\.)*"|'''|""""
 color normal "'''|""""
 # Comments.
 color brightred "(^|[[:blank:]])#.*"
diff --git a/syntax/sh.nanorc b/syntax/sh.nanorc
index cb7b8f65..aa520c5d 100644
--- a/syntax/sh.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/sh.nanorc
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ color brightred "\$\{[#!]?([-@*#?$!]|[0-9]+|[[:alpha:]_][[:alnum:]_]*)(\[([[:bla
 color cyan "(^|[[:blank:]])#.*"
 
 # Strings.
-color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"" "'(\\.|[^'])*'"
+color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'"
 
 # Trailing whitespace.
 color ,green "[[:space:]]+$"
diff --git a/syntax/tcl.nanorc b/syntax/tcl.nanorc
index 055b1470..224a7884 100644
--- a/syntax/tcl.nanorc
+++ b/syntax/tcl.nanorc
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ color green "\<(alarm|auto_load_pkg|bsearch|catclose|catgets|catopen|ccollate|cc
 # Syntax:
 color brightblue "\<proc[[:blank:]]|\{|\}"
 color green "\(|\)|\;|`|\\|\$|<|>|!|=|&|\|"
-color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"" "'(\\.|[^'])*'"
+color brightyellow ""(\\.|[^"])*"|'(\\.|[^'])*'"
 color brightred "\$\{?[0-9A-Za-z_!@#$*?-]+\}?"
 
 # Trailing whitespace: