diff --git a/editor/grammar.ne b/editor/grammar.ne
index 0d02507..eab8689 100644
--- a/editor/grammar.ne
+++ b/editor/grammar.ne
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 
 const moo = require('moo')
 
+const backslashes = s => s.replace(/\\["\\]/g, x => x[1])
+
+
 let lexer = moo.compile([
   {name: 'NL',      match: '\n', lineBreaks: true },
   {name: 'WS',      match: /[ \t]+/},
@@ -119,7 +122,7 @@ var negateNumber = factory(function (a, _, n) {
 })
 
 var string = factory(function decodeString(...d) {
-  return d[0].value
+  return backslashes(d[0].value)
 }, function encodeString(d) {
   if (typeof d === 'string') {
     return d
diff --git a/test/grammar.test.js b/test/grammar.test.js
index f303d43..f53724f 100644
--- a/test/grammar.test.js
+++ b/test/grammar.test.js
@@ -27,6 +27,54 @@ function parseBlock(source) {
 }
 
 
+describe('tokenize', () => {
+
+  const lexer = grammar.lexer
+  const source = `
+  when flag clicked
+  say "Hello \\"world\\"!"
+  forever {
+    move 10 steps
+  }`
+
+  // TODO move backslash-escapes into tokenizer?
+
+  test('file', () => {
+    lexer.reset(source)
+    expect(Array.from(lexer).map(t => `${t.type} ${t.value}`)).toEqual([
+  "NL \n",
+  "WS   ",
+  "symbol when",
+  "WS  ",
+  "symbol flag",
+  "WS  ",
+  "symbol clicked",
+  "NL \n",
+  "WS   ",
+  "symbol say",
+  "WS  ",
+  'string Hello \\"world\\"!',
+  "NL \n",
+  "WS   ",
+  "symbol forever",
+  "WS  ",
+  "{ {",
+  "NL \n",
+  "WS     ",
+  "symbol move",
+  "WS  ",
+  "number 10",
+  "WS  ",
+  "symbol steps",
+  "NL \n",
+  "WS   ",
+  "} }",
+    ])
+  })
+
+})
+
+
 describe('parse', () => {
 
   test('line', () => {
@@ -72,6 +120,9 @@ describe('parse', () => {
     expect(parseBlock('forever {\n   }')).toEqual(['doForever', null])
   })
 
+  test('backslash-escapes', () => {
+    expect(parseBlock('say "Hello \\"world\\"!"')).toEqual(['say:', 'Hello "world"!'])
+  })
 
 })
 
diff --git a/test/mode.test.js b/test/mode.test.js
index 3eec30b..a161e31 100644
--- a/test/mode.test.js
+++ b/test/mode.test.js
@@ -210,5 +210,8 @@ describe('highlight', () => {
   MT('closed string',
     '[s-looks say] [string "foo "] ')
 
+  MT('backslash-escaped strings',
+    '[s-looks say] [string "potato \\"waffles\\"."] ')
+
 })