diff --git a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/typecheck.go b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/typecheck.go
index 6f544a5b9ae..5e92e926e3d 100644
--- a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/typecheck.go
+++ b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/typecheck.go
@@ -498,7 +498,12 @@ OpSwitch:
 			ok |= Etype
 			n.Op = OTYPE
 			n.Type = types.NewPtr(l.Type)
-			checkwidth(l.Type) // ensure this gets dowidth'd for the backend
+			// Ensure l.Type gets dowidth'd for the backend. Issue 20174.
+			// Don't checkwidth [...] arrays, though, since they
+			// will be replaced by concrete-sized arrays. Issue 20333.
+			if !l.Type.IsDDDArray() {
+				checkwidth(l.Type)
+			}
 			n.Left = nil
 			break OpSwitch
 		}
diff --git a/test/fixedbugs/issue20333.go b/test/fixedbugs/issue20333.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8202ab3e221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixedbugs/issue20333.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+// compile
+
+// Copyright 2017 The Go Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+// Issue 20333: early checkwidth of [...] arrays led to compilation errors.
+
+package main
+
+import "fmt"
+
+func main() {
+	fmt.Println(&[...]string{"abc", "def", "ghi"})
+}