diff --git a/tests/mediawikiversion_tests.py b/tests/mediawikiversion_tests.py
index f5c2f15870..f85e440097 100755
--- a/tests/mediawikiversion_tests.py
+++ b/tests/mediawikiversion_tests.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ def test_invalid_versions(self):
             MediaWikiVersion('1.missing')
         with self.assertRaisesRegex(
                 AssertionError,
-                'Found \"wmf\" in \"wmf-1\"'):
+                'Found "wmf" in "wmf-1"'):
             MediaWikiVersion('1.33wmf-1')
 
     def test_generator(self):
diff --git a/tests/time_tests.py b/tests/time_tests.py
index 3deaf37432..c317c7c0d5 100755
--- a/tests/time_tests.py
+++ b/tests/time_tests.py
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ def test_set_from_string_posix(self):
     def test_set_from_string_invalid(self):
         """Test failure creating instance from invalid string."""
         for timestr, _posix in self.test_results['INVALID']:
-            regex = "time data \'[^\']*?\' does not match"
+            regex = "time data '[^']*?' does not match"
             with self.subTest(timestr), \
                     self.assertRaisesRegex(ValueError, regex):
                 Timestamp.set_timestamp(timestr)