diff --git a/include/wx/strvararg.h b/include/wx/strvararg.h
index 6562ee3150..f96ed85f5d 100644
--- a/include/wx/strvararg.h
+++ b/include/wx/strvararg.h
@@ -155,6 +155,9 @@ public:
     // a char* string is also a pointer and an integer is also a char.
     enum ArgumentType
     {
+        Arg_Unused      = 0, // not used at all; the value of 0 is chosen to
+                             // conveniently pass wxASSERT_ARG_TYPE's check
+
         Arg_Char        = 0x0001,    // character as char %c
         Arg_Pointer     = 0x0002,    // %p
         Arg_String      = 0x0004 | Arg_Pointer, // any form of string (%s and %p too)
diff --git a/src/common/strvararg.cpp b/src/common/strvararg.cpp
index 9112bbf8f9..83d82b3383 100644
--- a/src/common/strvararg.cpp
+++ b/src/common/strvararg.cpp
@@ -654,8 +654,17 @@ wxFormatString::ArgumentType DoGetArgumentType(const CharType *format,
 
     wxPrintfConvSpecParser<CharType> parser(format);
 
-    wxCHECK_MSG( n <= parser.nargs, wxFormatString::Arg_Unknown,
-                 "more arguments than format string specifiers?" );
+    if ( n > parser.nargs )
+    {
+        // The n-th argument doesn't appear in the format string and is unused.
+        // This can happen e.g. if a translation of the format string is used
+        // and the translation language tends to avoid numbers in singular forms.
+        // The translator would then typically replace "%d" with "One" (e.g. in
+        // Hebrew). Passing too many vararg arguments does not harm, so its
+        // better to be more permissive here and allow legitimate uses in favour
+        // of catching harmless errors.
+        return wxFormatString::Arg_Unused;
+    }
 
     wxCHECK_MSG( parser.pspec[n-1] != NULL, wxFormatString::Arg_Unknown,
                  "requested argument not found - invalid format string?" );