diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 4098fb3..b2332a5 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -7666,8 +7666,12 @@
         Py_RETURN_FALSE;
     }
     substring = (PyUnicodeObject *)PyUnicode_FromObject(subobj);
-    if (substring == NULL)
+    if (substring == NULL) {
+        if (PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_TypeError))
+            PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError, "startswith first arg must be str, "
+                         "unicode, or tuple, not %s", Py_TYPE(subobj)->tp_name);
         return NULL;
+    }
     result = tailmatch(self, substring, start, end, -1);
     Py_DECREF(substring);
     return PyBool_FromLong(result);
@@ -7710,9 +7714,12 @@
         Py_RETURN_FALSE;
     }
     substring = (PyUnicodeObject *)PyUnicode_FromObject(subobj);
-    if (substring == NULL)
+    if (substring == NULL) {
+        if (PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_TypeError))
+            PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError, "endswith first arg must be str, "
+                         "unicode, or tuple, not %s", Py_TYPE(subobj)->tp_name);
         return NULL;
-
+    }
     result = tailmatch(self, substring, start, end, +1);
     Py_DECREF(substring);
     return PyBool_FromLong(result);