diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a3db06b..07948e1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 ### Changed
 
 - internal: improve shell script based on ShellCheck suggestions, quoting variables use etc [#187] [#465]
+- put single quote marks around parameters to clarify error messages [#485]
 
 ## [3.0.2] (2019-04-07)
 
@@ -86,6 +87,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 [#465]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/465
 [#466]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/466
 [#467]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/467
+[#485]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/485
 [#512]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/512
 [#516]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/516
 [#518]: https://github.com/tj/n/issues/518
diff --git a/bin/n b/bin/n
index f970d73..650a080 100755
--- a/bin/n
+++ b/bin/n
@@ -500,7 +500,7 @@ install() {
       | grep -E "^$version" \
       | tail -n1)"
 
-    test "$version" || abort "invalid version ${1#v}"
+    test "$version" || abort "invalid version '${1#v}'"
   fi
 
   local dir="${VERSIONS_DIR[$DEFAULT]}/$version"
@@ -518,7 +518,7 @@ install() {
   log install "${BINS[$DEFAULT]}-v$version"
 
   local url="$(tarball_url "$version")"
-  is_ok "$url" || is_oss_ok "$url" || abort "invalid version $version"
+  is_ok "$url" || is_oss_ok "$url" || abort "invalid version '$version'"
 
   log mkdir "$dir"
   if ! mkdir -p "$dir"; then
@@ -603,7 +603,7 @@ display_bin_path_for_version() {
   if test -f "$bin"; then
     printf "%s\n" "$bin"
   else
-    abort "$1 is not installed"
+    abort "'$1' is not installed"
   fi
 }
 
@@ -634,7 +634,7 @@ execute_with_version() {
   if test -f "$bin"; then
     exec "$bin" "$@"
   else
-    abort "$version is not installed"
+    abort "'$version' is not installed"
   fi
 }