diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/antlr/org/hibernate/grammars/hql/HqlParser.g4 b/hibernate-core/src/main/antlr/org/hibernate/grammars/hql/HqlParser.g4
index 10a352e3e6..dc5c26f037 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/antlr/org/hibernate/grammars/hql/HqlParser.g4
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/antlr/org/hibernate/grammars/hql/HqlParser.g4
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ entityName
 	;
 
 identificationVariableDef
-	: (AS identifier)
+	: AS identifier
 	| IDENTIFIER
 	| QUOTED_IDENTIFIER
 	;