diff --git a/mode/groovy/groovy.js b/mode/groovy/groovy.js
index 89d0fe0854..24d886ebb1 100644
--- a/mode/groovy/groovy.js
+++ b/mode/groovy/groovy.js
@@ -129,10 +129,8 @@ CodeMirror.defineMode("groovy", function(config) {
 
   function tokenVariableDeref(stream, state) {
     var next = stream.match(/^(\.|[\w\$_]+)/)
-    if (!next) {
-      state.tokenize.pop()
-      return state.tokenize[state.tokenize.length-1](stream, state)
-    }
+    if (!next || !stream.match(next[0] == "." ? /^[\w$_]/ : /^\./)) state.tokenize.pop()
+    if (!next) return state.tokenize[state.tokenize.length-1](stream, state)
     return next[0] == "." ? null : "variable"
   }