diff --git a/Lib/distutils/filelist.py b/Lib/distutils/filelist.py
index 2eaff837050..a8049287df0 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/filelist.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/filelist.py
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ class FileList:
         else:
             raise DistutilsTemplateError, "unknown action '%s'" % action
 
-        return (action, pattern, dir, dir_pattern)
+        return (action, patterns, dir, dir_pattern)
 
     # _parse_template_line ()