diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/compile.el b/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
index 88daa725119..e13bec9f2df 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/compile.el
@@ -917,7 +917,12 @@ See variable `compilation-parse-errors-function' for the interface it uses."
     ;; Don't parse the first two lines as error messages.
     ;; This matters for grep.
     (if (bobp)
-	(forward-line 2))
+	(progn
+	  (forward-line 2)
+	  ;; Move back so point is before the newline.
+	  ;; This matters because some error regexps use \n instead of ^
+	  ;; to be faster.
+	  (forward-char -1)))
 
     ;; Compile all the regexps we want to search for into one.
     (setq regexp (concat "\\(" compilation-enter-directory-regexp "\\)\\|"