diff --git a/py/lexer.c b/py/lexer.c
index c6ecdf1f8e..7db49de895 100644
--- a/py/lexer.c
+++ b/py/lexer.c
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ STATIC void mp_lexer_next_token_into(mp_lexer_t *lex, bool first_token) {
                     } else {
                         switch (c) {
                             case MP_LEXER_EOF: break; // TODO a proper error message?
-                            case '\n': c = MP_LEXER_EOF; break; // TODO check this works correctly (we are supposed to ignore it
+                            case '\n': c = MP_LEXER_EOF; break; // backslash escape the newline, just ignore it
                             case '\\': break;
                             case '\'': break;
                             case '"': break;
diff --git a/tests/basics/lexer.py b/tests/basics/lexer.py
index 70a9cce993..5f12afa70f 100644
--- a/tests/basics/lexer.py
+++ b/tests/basics/lexer.py
@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ print(eval("1\r"))
 print(eval("12\r"))
 print(eval("123\r"))
 
+# backslash used to escape a line-break in a string
+print('a\
+b')
+
 # lots of indentation
 def a(x):
  if x: