diff --git a/Lib/test/test_re.py b/Lib/test/test_re.py
index e1b2c794291848..0ed243da3ff9e2 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_re.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_re.py
@@ -2104,6 +2104,12 @@ def test_bug_34294(self):
                           {'tag': 'foo', 'text': None},
                           {'tag': 'foo', 'text': None}])
 
+    def test_bug_40736(self):
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, "got 'int'"):
+            re.search("x*", 5)
+        with self.assertRaisesRegex(TypeError, "got 'type'"):
+            re.search("x*", type)
+
 
 class PatternReprTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def check(self, pattern, expected):
diff --git a/Modules/_sre.c b/Modules/_sre.c
index 9d0fc4ab7c03ab..a313ea19981fbf 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre.c
+++ b/Modules/_sre.c
@@ -389,7 +389,8 @@ getstring(PyObject* string, Py_ssize_t* p_length,
 
     /* get pointer to byte string buffer */
     if (PyObject_GetBuffer(string, view, PyBUF_SIMPLE) != 0) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "expected string or bytes-like object");
+        PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError, "expected string or bytes-like "
+                     "object, got '%.200s'", Py_TYPE(string)->tp_name);
         return NULL;
     }