diff --git a/Include/unicodeobject.h b/Include/unicodeobject.h
index ba73e562acf..d7c9fa773c7 100644
--- a/Include/unicodeobject.h
+++ b/Include/unicodeobject.h
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ typedef struct {
            PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND
          * compact = 1
          * ready = 1
-         * (ascii = 0)
+         * ascii = 0
 
        - string created by the legacy API (not ready):
 
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ typedef struct {
          * data.any is NULL
          * utf8 is NULL
          * interned = SSTATE_NOT_INTERNED
-         * (ascii = 0)
+         * ascii = 0
 
        - string created by the legacy API, ready:
 
@@ -246,7 +246,6 @@ typedef struct {
          * compact = 0
          * ready = 1
          * data.any is not NULL
-         * (ascii = 0)
 
        String created by the legacy API becomes ready when calling
        PyUnicode_READY().
@@ -278,8 +277,9 @@ typedef struct {
            one block for the PyUnicodeObject struct and another for its data
            buffer. */
         unsigned int compact:1;
-        /* Compact objects which are ASCII-only also have the state.compact
-           flag set, and use the PyASCIIObject struct. */
+        /* kind is PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND but data contains only ASCII
+           characters. If ascii is 1 and compact is 1, use the PyASCIIObject
+           structure. */
         unsigned int ascii:1;
         /* The ready flag indicates whether the object layout is initialized
            completely. This means that this is either a compact object, or
@@ -304,7 +304,7 @@ typedef struct {
 
 /* Strings allocated through PyUnicode_FromUnicode(NULL, len) use the
    PyUnicodeObject structure. The actual string data is initially in the wstr
-   block, and copied into the data block using PyUnicode_Ready. */
+   block, and copied into the data block using _PyUnicode_Ready. */
 typedef struct {
     PyCompactUnicodeObject _base;
     union {
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ PyAPI_DATA(PyTypeObject) PyUnicodeIter_Type;
 #ifndef Py_LIMITED_API
 
 #define PyUnicode_WSTR_LENGTH(op) \
-    (((PyASCIIObject*)op)->state.ascii ?    \
+    (PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(op) ?                  \
      ((PyASCIIObject*)op)->length :                    \
      ((PyCompactUnicodeObject*)op)->wstr_length)
 
@@ -369,10 +369,24 @@ PyAPI_DATA(PyTypeObject) PyUnicodeIter_Type;
 #define SSTATE_INTERNED_MORTAL 1
 #define SSTATE_INTERNED_IMMORTAL 2
 
-#define PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(op) (((PyASCIIObject*)op)->state.ascii)
+/* Return true if the string contains only ASCII characters, or 0 if not. The
+   string may be compact (PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII) or not. No type checks
+   or Ready calls are performed. */
+#define PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(op)                 \
+    (((PyASCIIObject*)op)->state.ascii)
+
+/* Return true if the string is compact or 0 if not.
+   No type checks or Ready calls are performed. */
+#define PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT(op) \
+    (((PyASCIIObject*)(op))->state.compact)
+
+/* Return true if the string is a compact ASCII string (use PyASCIIObject
+   structure), or 0 if not.  No type checks or Ready calls are performed. */
+#define PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(op)                 \
+    (PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(op) && PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT(op))
 
 /* String contains only wstr byte characters.  This is only possible
-   when the string was created with a legacy API and PyUnicode_Ready()
+   when the string was created with a legacy API and _PyUnicode_Ready()
    has not been called yet.  */
 #define PyUnicode_WCHAR_KIND 0
 
@@ -399,11 +413,6 @@ PyAPI_DATA(PyTypeObject) PyUnicodeIter_Type;
 #define PyUnicode_2BYTE_DATA(op) ((Py_UCS2*)PyUnicode_DATA(op))
 #define PyUnicode_4BYTE_DATA(op) ((Py_UCS4*)PyUnicode_DATA(op))
 
-/* Return true if the string is compact or 0 if not.
-   No type checks or Ready calls are performed. */
-#define PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT(op) \
-    (((PyASCIIObject*)(op))->state.compact)
-
 /* Return one of the PyUnicode_*_KIND values defined above. */
 #define PyUnicode_KIND(op) \
     (assert(PyUnicode_Check(op)), \
@@ -500,9 +509,9 @@ PyAPI_DATA(PyTypeObject) PyUnicodeIter_Type;
 
 #define PyUnicode_IS_READY(op) (((PyASCIIObject*)op)->state.ready)
 
-/* PyUnicode_READY() does less work than PyUnicode_Ready() in the best
+/* PyUnicode_READY() does less work than _PyUnicode_Ready() in the best
    case.  If the canonical representation is not yet set, it will still call
-   PyUnicode_Ready().
+   _PyUnicode_Ready().
    Returns 0 on success and -1 on errors. */
 #define PyUnicode_READY(op)                        \
     (assert(PyUnicode_Check(op)),                       \
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 7d604850edd..cc6b41697d5 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -288,16 +288,14 @@ _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency(void *op)
     ascii = (PyASCIIObject *)op;
     kind = ascii->state.kind;
 
-    if (ascii->state.ascii == 1) {
+    if (ascii->state.ascii == 1 && ascii->state.compact == 1) {
         assert(kind == PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND);
-        assert(ascii->state.compact == 1);
         assert(ascii->state.ready == 1);
     }
     else if (ascii->state.compact == 1) {
         assert(kind == PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND
                || kind == PyUnicode_2BYTE_KIND
                || kind == PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND);
-        assert(ascii->state.compact == 1);
         assert(ascii->state.ascii == 0);
         assert(ascii->state.ready == 1);
     } else {
@@ -305,9 +303,9 @@ _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency(void *op)
         PyUnicodeObject *unicode = (PyUnicodeObject *)op;
 
         if (kind == PyUnicode_WCHAR_KIND) {
-            assert(!ascii->state.compact == 1);
+            assert(ascii->state.compact == 0);
             assert(ascii->state.ascii == 0);
-            assert(!ascii->state.ready == 1);
+            assert(ascii->state.ready == 0);
             assert(ascii->wstr != NULL);
             assert(unicode->data.any == NULL);
             assert(compact->utf8 == NULL);
@@ -317,10 +315,9 @@ _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency(void *op)
             assert(kind == PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND
                    || kind == PyUnicode_2BYTE_KIND
                    || kind == PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND);
-            assert(!ascii->state.compact == 1);
+            assert(ascii->state.compact == 0);
             assert(ascii->state.ready == 1);
             assert(unicode->data.any != NULL);
-            assert(ascii->state.ascii == 0);
         }
     }
     return 1;
@@ -638,7 +635,7 @@ unicode_kind_name(PyObject *unicode)
         switch(PyUnicode_KIND(unicode))
         {
         case PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND:
-            if (PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(unicode))
+            if (PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(unicode))
                 return "legacy ascii";
             else
                 return "legacy latin1";
@@ -654,14 +651,14 @@ unicode_kind_name(PyObject *unicode)
     switch(PyUnicode_KIND(unicode))
     {
     case PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND:
-        if (PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(unicode))
+        if (PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(unicode))
             return "ascii";
         else
-            return "compact latin1";
+            return "latin1";
     case PyUnicode_2BYTE_KIND:
-        return "compact UCS2";
+        return "UCS2";
     case PyUnicode_4BYTE_KIND:
-        return "compact UCS4";
+        return "UCS4";
     default:
         return "<invalid compact kind>";
     }
@@ -703,7 +700,7 @@ _PyUnicode_Dump(PyObject *op)
     if (ascii->wstr == data)
         printf("shared ");
     printf("wstr=%p", ascii->wstr);
-    if (!ascii->state.ascii) {
+    if (!(ascii->state.ascii == 1 && ascii->state.compact == 1)) {
         printf(" (%zu), ", compact->wstr_length);
         if (!ascii->state.compact && compact->utf8 == unicode->data.any)
             printf("shared ");
@@ -954,9 +951,9 @@ PyUnicode_CopyCharacters(PyObject *to, Py_ssize_t to_start,
         /* check if max_char(from substring) <= max_char(to) */
         if (from_kind > to_kind
                 /* latin1 => ascii */
-            || (PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(to)
+            || (PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(to)
                 && to_kind == PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND
-                && !PyUnicode_IS_COMPACT_ASCII(from)))
+                && !PyUnicode_IS_ASCII(from)))
         {
             /* slow path to check for character overflow */
             const Py_UCS4 to_maxchar = PyUnicode_MAX_CHAR_VALUE(to);
@@ -1115,10 +1112,12 @@ unicode_ready(PyObject **p_obj, int replace)
         _PyUnicode_LENGTH(unicode) = _PyUnicode_WSTR_LENGTH(unicode);
         _PyUnicode_STATE(unicode).kind = PyUnicode_1BYTE_KIND;
         if (maxchar < 128) {
+            _PyUnicode_STATE(unicode).ascii = 1;
             _PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode) = _PyUnicode_DATA_ANY(unicode);
             _PyUnicode_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode) = _PyUnicode_WSTR_LENGTH(unicode);
         }
         else {
+            _PyUnicode_STATE(unicode).ascii = 0;
             _PyUnicode_UTF8(unicode) = NULL;
             _PyUnicode_UTF8_LENGTH(unicode) = 0;
         }
diff --git a/Tools/gdb/libpython.py b/Tools/gdb/libpython.py
index b5183d45fcb..4b42c8bff83 100644
--- a/Tools/gdb/libpython.py
+++ b/Tools/gdb/libpython.py
@@ -1132,15 +1132,16 @@ class PyUnicodeObjectPtr(PyObjectPtr):
             compact = self.field('_base')
             ascii = compact['_base']
             state = ascii['state']
+            is_compact_ascii = (int(state['ascii']) and int(state['compact']))
             field_length = long(ascii['length'])
             if not int(state['ready']):
                 # string is not ready
                 may_have_surrogates = True
                 field_str = ascii['wstr']
-                if not int(state['ascii']):
+                if not is_compact_ascii:
                     field_length = compact('wstr_length')
             else:
-                if int(state['ascii']):
+                if is_compact_ascii:
                     field_str = ascii.address + 1
                 elif int(state['compact']):
                     field_str = compact.address + 1