diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/ConsoleReporter.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/ConsoleReporter.scala
index 8f1fbf797a63..dcfbd717dc4e 100644
--- a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/ConsoleReporter.scala
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/ConsoleReporter.scala
@@ -41,7 +41,10 @@ class ConsoleReporter(
   }
 
   override def doReport(d: Diagnostic)(implicit ctx: Context): Boolean = {
-    val issue = !(d.isSuppressed && hasErrors)
+    val issue =
+      !d.isNonSensical ||
+      !hasErrors || // if there are no errors yet, report even if diagnostic is non-sensical
+      ctx.settings.YshowSuppressedErrors.value
     if (issue) d match {
       case d: Error =>
         printMessageAndPos(s"error: ${d.msg}", d.pos)
diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Diagnostic.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Diagnostic.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c57be3d26190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Diagnostic.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+package dotty.tools
+package dotc
+package reporting
+
+import util.SourcePosition
+
+object Diagnostic {
+
+  // Error levels
+  val ERROR = 2
+  val WARNING = 1
+  val INFO = 0
+
+  val nonSensicalStartTag = "<nonsensical>"
+  val nonSensicalEndTag = "</nonsensical>"
+}
+
+class Diagnostic(msgFn: => String, val pos: SourcePosition, val level: Int) extends Exception {
+  import Diagnostic._
+  private var myMsg: String = null
+  private var myIsNonSensical: Boolean = false
+
+  /** The message to report */
+  def msg: String = {
+    if (myMsg == null) {
+      myMsg = msgFn
+      if (myMsg.contains(nonSensicalStartTag)) {
+        myIsNonSensical = true
+        // myMsg might be composed of several d"..." invocations -> nested nonsensical tags possible
+        myMsg = myMsg.replaceAllLiterally(nonSensicalStartTag, "").replaceAllLiterally(nonSensicalEndTag, "")
+      }
+    }
+    myMsg
+  }
+
+  /** A message is non-sensical if it contains references to <nonsensical> tags.
+   *  Such tags are inserted by the error diagnostic framework if a message
+   *  contains references to internally generated error types. Normally we
+   *  want to suppress error messages referring to types like this because
+   *  they look weird and are normally follow-up errors to something that
+   *  was diagnosed before.
+   */
+  def isNonSensical = { msg; myIsNonSensical }
+
+  override def toString = s"$getClass at $pos: $msg"
+  override def getMessage() = msg
+}
diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Reporter.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Reporter.scala
index 5ed7360da3a4..4914f03b7cbd 100644
--- a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Reporter.scala
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/Reporter.scala
@@ -12,44 +12,9 @@ import config.Printers
 import java.lang.System.currentTimeMillis
 import typer.ErrorReporting.DiagnosticString
 import typer.Mode
+import Diagnostic.{ERROR, WARNING, INFO}
 
 object Reporter {
-
-  private val ERROR = 2
-  private val WARNING = 1
-  private val INFO = 0
-
-  class Diagnostic(msgFn: => String, val pos: SourcePosition, val level: Int) extends Exception {
-    import DiagnosticString._
-
-    private var myMsg: String = null
-    private var myIsNonSensical: Boolean = false
-
-    /** The message to report */
-    def msg: String = {
-      if (myMsg == null) {
-        myMsg = msgFn
-        if (myMsg.contains(nonSensicalStartTag)) {
-          myIsNonSensical = true
-          // myMsg might be composed of several d"..." invocations -> nested nonsensical tags possible
-          myMsg = myMsg.replaceAllLiterally(nonSensicalStartTag, "").replaceAllLiterally(nonSensicalEndTag, "")
-        }
-      }
-      myMsg
-    }
-
-    /** Report in current reporter */
-    def report(implicit ctx: Context) = ctx.reporter.report(this)
-
-    def isNonSensical = { msg; myIsNonSensical }
-    def isSuppressed(implicit ctx: Context): Boolean = !ctx.settings.YshowSuppressedErrors.value && isNonSensical
-
-    override def toString = s"$getClass at $pos: $msg"
-    override def getMessage() = msg
-
-    def checkingStr: String = msgFn
-  }
-
   class Error(msgFn: => String, pos: SourcePosition) extends Diagnostic(msgFn, pos, ERROR)
   class Warning(msgFn: => String, pos: SourcePosition) extends Diagnostic(msgFn, pos, WARNING)
   class Info(msgFn: => String, pos: SourcePosition) extends Diagnostic(msgFn, pos, INFO)
diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/StoreReporter.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/StoreReporter.scala
index 8209839eb063..53f03f1fe8e7 100644
--- a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/StoreReporter.scala
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/StoreReporter.scala
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ package reporting
 
 import core.Contexts.Context
 import collection.mutable
-import Reporter.{Diagnostic, Error, Warning}
+import Reporter.{Error, Warning}
 import config.Printers._
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/UniqueMessagePositions.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/UniqueMessagePositions.scala
index c1f240a23940..32554e6b6b16 100644
--- a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/UniqueMessagePositions.scala
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/reporting/UniqueMessagePositions.scala
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ package reporting
 
 import scala.collection.mutable
 import util.{SourcePosition, SourceFile}
-import Reporter.Diagnostic
 import core.Contexts.Context
 
 /**
diff --git a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/typer/ErrorReporting.scala b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/typer/ErrorReporting.scala
index b3089c99ca03..e093026122f4 100644
--- a/src/dotty/tools/dotc/typer/ErrorReporting.scala
+++ b/src/dotty/tools/dotc/typer/ErrorReporting.scala
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import Trees._
 import Types._, ProtoTypes._, Contexts._, Decorators._, Denotations._, Symbols._
 import Applications._, Implicits._, Flags._
 import util.Positions._
+import reporting.Diagnostic
 import printing.Showable
 import printing.Disambiguation.disambiguated
 
@@ -139,13 +140,8 @@ object ErrorReporting {
       }
 
       val s = new StringInterpolators(sc).i(args : _*)
-      if (args.forall(isSensical(_))) s else nonSensicalStartTag + s + nonSensicalEndTag
+      if (args.forall(isSensical(_))) s
+      else Diagnostic.nonSensicalStartTag + s + Diagnostic.nonSensicalEndTag
     }
   }
-
-  object DiagnosticString {
-    final val nonSensicalStartTag = "<nonsensical>"
-    final val nonSensicalEndTag = "</nonsensical>"
-  }
-
 }