diff --git a/rc/kakrc.kak b/rc/kakrc.kak
index 3cb4056d..28780c26 100644
--- a/rc/kakrc.kak
+++ b/rc/kakrc.kak
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ addhl -def-group kakrc regex \<(default|black|red|green|yellow|blue|magenta|cyan
 addhl -def-group kakrc regex (?<=\<hook)\h+((global|buffer|window)|(\S+))\h+(\S+)\h+(\H+) 2:attribute 3:error 4:identifier 5:string
 addhl -def-group kakrc regex (?<=\<set)\h+((global|buffer|window)|(\S+))\h+(\S+)\h+(\S+) 2:attribute 3:error 4:identifier 5:value
 addhl -def-group kakrc regex (?<=\<regex)\h+(\S+) 1:string
-addhl -def-group kakrc regex (?<!\\)(["'])(?:\\\1|.)*?\1 0:string
+addhl -def-group kakrc region %{(^|\h)"} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*"\s} string
+addhl -def-group kakrc region %{(^|\h)'} %{(?<!\\)(\\\\)*'\s} string
 addhl -def-group kakrc regex (^|\h)\#[^\n]*\n 0:comment
 addhl -def-group kakrc region_ref '%sh\{' '\}' sh