diff --git a/selfhost/cmd/w6c/main.combined.ww b/selfhost/cmd/w6c/main.combined.ww
index b9d1ba84..c1039f5e 100644
--- a/selfhost/cmd/w6c/main.combined.ww
+++ b/selfhost/cmd/w6c/main.combined.ww
@@ -7867,9 +7867,26 @@ fn isassignable(c: *checker, dst: *node, src: *node, confident: *bool) bool = {
 	};
 	// Tagged-union variant inclusion: src is one of dst's variants.
 	if (du.kind == nkind.N_TTAGGED && su.kind != nkind.N_TTAGGED) {
+		// #55: nominal-first compare. Cstage variant_match
+		// (cmd/wcc/check.c:90-100) takes NAMED types as
+		// pointer-identical, so two `err`s match before bodies
+		// are resolved. Wwstage's typeeqast already does
+		// string-nominal on N_TNAME, but pre-fix this branch
+		// resolvealias-d both v and src to their bodies (e.g.
+		// N_TSTRUCT), and typeeqast's conservative struct arm
+		// returned false — `return e;` inside `fn f() (void | err)`
+		// got flagged. Compare surface forms first; fall through
+		// to resolved compare only when the surface mismatches
+		// (covers structurally-anonymous variant cases that
+		// resolvealias actually disambiguates). Residual: bare-vs-
+		// qualified TNAME (`(void | modM.err)` variant vs bare `err`
+		// inside modM) still misses both arms — filed as #57.
+		let srcraw: *node = unwrapbang(src);
 		let v: *node = du.list;
 		for (v != nil) {
-			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, unwrapbang(v));
+			let vraw: *node = unwrapbang(v);
+			if (typeeqast(vraw, srcraw)) { return true; };
+			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, vraw);
 			if (vu != nil) {
 				if (typeeqast(vu, su)) { return true; };
 			};
diff --git a/selfhost/cmd/wcc/check.ww b/selfhost/cmd/wcc/check.ww
index 4005fe75..3ded9f30 100644
--- a/selfhost/cmd/wcc/check.ww
+++ b/selfhost/cmd/wcc/check.ww
@@ -873,9 +873,26 @@ fn isassignable(c: *checker, dst: *node, src: *node, confident: *bool) bool = {
 	};
 	// Tagged-union variant inclusion: src is one of dst's variants.
 	if (du.kind == nkind.N_TTAGGED && su.kind != nkind.N_TTAGGED) {
+		// #55: nominal-first compare. Cstage variant_match
+		// (cmd/wcc/check.c:90-100) takes NAMED types as
+		// pointer-identical, so two `err`s match before bodies
+		// are resolved. Wwstage's typeeqast already does
+		// string-nominal on N_TNAME, but pre-fix this branch
+		// resolvealias-d both v and src to their bodies (e.g.
+		// N_TSTRUCT), and typeeqast's conservative struct arm
+		// returned false — `return e;` inside `fn f() (void | err)`
+		// got flagged. Compare surface forms first; fall through
+		// to resolved compare only when the surface mismatches
+		// (covers structurally-anonymous variant cases that
+		// resolvealias actually disambiguates). Residual: bare-vs-
+		// qualified TNAME (`(void | modM.err)` variant vs bare `err`
+		// inside modM) still misses both arms — filed as #57.
+		let srcraw: *node = unwrapbang(src);
 		let v: *node = du.list;
 		for (v != nil) {
-			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, unwrapbang(v));
+			let vraw: *node = unwrapbang(v);
+			if (typeeqast(vraw, srcraw)) { return true; };
+			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, vraw);
 			if (vu != nil) {
 				if (typeeqast(vu, su)) { return true; };
 			};
diff --git a/selfhost/cmd/wwdump/main.combined.ww b/selfhost/cmd/wwdump/main.combined.ww
index 28d502c3..5b0ae1b4 100644
--- a/selfhost/cmd/wwdump/main.combined.ww
+++ b/selfhost/cmd/wwdump/main.combined.ww
@@ -7867,9 +7867,26 @@ fn isassignable(c: *checker, dst: *node, src: *node, confident: *bool) bool = {
 	};
 	// Tagged-union variant inclusion: src is one of dst's variants.
 	if (du.kind == nkind.N_TTAGGED && su.kind != nkind.N_TTAGGED) {
+		// #55: nominal-first compare. Cstage variant_match
+		// (cmd/wcc/check.c:90-100) takes NAMED types as
+		// pointer-identical, so two `err`s match before bodies
+		// are resolved. Wwstage's typeeqast already does
+		// string-nominal on N_TNAME, but pre-fix this branch
+		// resolvealias-d both v and src to their bodies (e.g.
+		// N_TSTRUCT), and typeeqast's conservative struct arm
+		// returned false — `return e;` inside `fn f() (void | err)`
+		// got flagged. Compare surface forms first; fall through
+		// to resolved compare only when the surface mismatches
+		// (covers structurally-anonymous variant cases that
+		// resolvealias actually disambiguates). Residual: bare-vs-
+		// qualified TNAME (`(void | modM.err)` variant vs bare `err`
+		// inside modM) still misses both arms — filed as #57.
+		let srcraw: *node = unwrapbang(src);
 		let v: *node = du.list;
 		for (v != nil) {
-			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, unwrapbang(v));
+			let vraw: *node = unwrapbang(v);
+			if (typeeqast(vraw, srcraw)) { return true; };
+			let vu: *node = resolvealias(c, vraw);
 			if (vu != nil) {
 				if (typeeqast(vu, su)) { return true; };
 			};