--- a/mercurial/templater.py	Thu Jun 12 17:53:37 2014 -0700
+++ b/mercurial/templater.py	Thu Jun 12 18:07:21 2014 -0700
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@
 def getsymbol(exp):
     if exp[0] == 'symbol':
         return exp[1]
-    raise error.ParseError(_("expected a symbol"))
+    raise error.ParseError(_("expected a symbol, got '%s'") % exp[0])
 
 def getlist(x):
     if not x: