diff --git a/src/Perl6/Actions.nqp b/src/Perl6/Actions.nqp
index 055963ee3e3..667fd9d29e0 100644
--- a/src/Perl6/Actions.nqp
+++ b/src/Perl6/Actions.nqp
@@ -9774,7 +9774,17 @@ class Perl6::QActions is HLL::Actions does STDActions {
             }
         }
         walk($past);
-        +@($result) == 1 ?? $result[0] !! QAST::Stmts.new( $result )
+
+        # Strip out list op and possible Slip if only one resulting word
+        nqp::if(
+            +@($result) == 1,
+            nqp::if(
+                nqp::istype($result[0], QAST::Op) && $result[0].name eq 'Slip',
+                $result[0][0],
+                $result[0]
+            ),
+            QAST::Stmts.new( $result )
+        )
     }
 
     method postprocess_heredoc($/, $past) {
diff --git a/src/core/allomorphs.pm b/src/core/allomorphs.pm
index 7dda60432f1..f15ac40850c 100644
--- a/src/core/allomorphs.pm
+++ b/src/core/allomorphs.pm
@@ -159,9 +159,16 @@ multi sub val(Mu) {
     Mu
 }
 
-# needed to preserve slip-ness
-multi sub val(Slip:D $maybevals) {
-    val(|$maybevals).Slip
+# if Slip, preserve slipness
+multi sub val(List:D $maybevals) {
+    nqp::stmts(
+        (my $output := val(|$maybevals)),
+        nqp::if(
+            nqp::istype($maybevals, Slip),
+            $output.Slip,
+            $output
+        )
+    )
 }
 
 multi sub val(Pair:D \ww-thing) is raw {