diff --git a/flang/lib/Evaluate/intrinsics.cpp b/flang/lib/Evaluate/intrinsics.cpp
index 876c2aed4ffd..166dae93178c 100644
--- a/flang/lib/Evaluate/intrinsics.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Evaluate/intrinsics.cpp
@@ -2264,7 +2264,7 @@ std::optional<SpecificCall> IntrinsicInterface::Match(
         messages.Say("'kind=' argument must be a constant scalar integer "
                      "whose value is a supported kind for the "
                      "intrinsic result type"_err_en_US);
-        return std::nullopt;
+        // use default kind below for error recovery
       } else if (kindDummyArg->flags.test(ArgFlag::defaultsToSameKind)) {
         CHECK(sameArg);
         resultType = *sameArg->GetType();
@@ -2274,6 +2274,8 @@ std::optional<SpecificCall> IntrinsicInterface::Match(
             DynamicType{TypeCategory::Integer, defaults.sizeIntegerKind()};
       } else {
         CHECK(kindDummyArg->flags.test(ArgFlag::defaultsToDefaultForResult));
+      }
+      if (!resultType) {
         int kind{defaults.GetDefaultKind(*category)};
         if (*category == TypeCategory::Character) { // ACHAR & CHAR
           resultType = DynamicType{kind, 1};
diff --git a/flang/test/Semantics/kinds06.f90 b/flang/test/Semantics/kinds06.f90
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f5b488ebc714
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flang/test/Semantics/kinds06.f90
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+!RUN: %python %S/test_errors.py %s %flang_fc1
+!ERROR: 'kind=' argument must be a constant scalar integer whose value is a supported kind for the intrinsic result type
+print *, real(1.,666)
+end