diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/messageformat2_parser.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/messageformat2_parser.cpp
index fe5bfb484803..3d5ea6e560d2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/messageformat2_parser.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/messageformat2_parser.cpp
@@ -1785,7 +1785,7 @@ UnicodeString Parser::parseText(UErrorCode& status) {
         return str;
     }
 
-    if (!(isTextChar(source[index] || source[index] == BACKSLASH))) {
+    if (!(isTextChar(source[index]) || source[index] == BACKSLASH)) {
         // Error -- text is expected here
         ERROR(parseError, status, index);
         return str;