diff --git a/builtin/add.c b/builtin/add.c
index 9916498a29..0b64bcdebe 100644
--- a/builtin/add.c
+++ b/builtin/add.c
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ int cmd_add(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	 * Check the "pathspec '%s' did not match any files" block
 	 * below before enabling new magic.
 	 */
-	parse_pathspec(&pathspec, 0,
+	parse_pathspec(&pathspec, PATHSPEC_ATTR,
 		       PATHSPEC_PREFER_FULL |
 		       PATHSPEC_SYMLINK_LEADING_PATH,
 		       prefix, argv);
diff --git a/t/t6135-pathspec-with-attrs.sh b/t/t6135-pathspec-with-attrs.sh
index 77b8cef661..e436a73962 100755
--- a/t/t6135-pathspec-with-attrs.sh
+++ b/t/t6135-pathspec-with-attrs.sh
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ test_expect_success 'fail if attr magic is used places not implemented' '
 	# though, but git-add is convenient as it has its own internal pathspec
 	# parsing.
 	test_must_fail git add ":(attr:labelB)" 2>actual &&
-	test_i18ngrep "unsupported magic" actual
+	test_i18ngrep "magic not supported" actual
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'abort on giving invalid label on the command line' '