diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
index b7dde7260921..7b086d1cd6c2 100755
--- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
@@ -3182,15 +3182,18 @@ sub process {
 # Check for various typo / spelling mistakes
 		if (defined($misspellings) &&
 		    ($in_commit_log || $line =~ /^(?:\+|Subject:)/i)) {
-			while ($rawline =~ /(?:^|[^a-z@])($misspellings)(?:\b|$|[^a-z@])/gi) {
+			while ($rawline =~ /(?:^|[^\w\-'`])($misspellings)(?:[^\w\-'`]|$)/gi) {
 				my $typo = $1;
+				my $blank = copy_spacing($rawline);
+				my $ptr = substr($blank, 0, $-[1]) . "^" x length($typo);
+				my $hereptr = "$hereline$ptr\n";
 				my $typo_fix = $spelling_fix{lc($typo)};
 				$typo_fix = ucfirst($typo_fix) if ($typo =~ /^[A-Z]/);
 				$typo_fix = uc($typo_fix) if ($typo =~ /^[A-Z]+$/);
 				my $msg_level = \&WARN;
 				$msg_level = \&CHK if ($file);
 				if (&{$msg_level}("TYPO_SPELLING",
-						  "'$typo' may be misspelled - perhaps '$typo_fix'?\n" . $herecurr) &&
+						  "'$typo' may be misspelled - perhaps '$typo_fix'?\n" . $hereptr) &&
 				    $fix) {
 					$fixed[$fixlinenr] =~ s/(^|[^A-Za-z@])($typo)($|[^A-Za-z@])/$1$typo_fix$3/;
 				}