diff --git a/util/build-gnu.sh b/util/build-gnu.sh
index a9df0f401..4ef9b4744 100755
--- a/util/build-gnu.sh
+++ b/util/build-gnu.sh
@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ sed -i -e "s/ginstall: creating directory/install: creating directory/g" tests/i
 # disable this test case
 sed -i -Ez "s/\n([^\n#]*pad-3\.2[^\n]*)\n([^\n]*)\n([^\n]*)/\n# uutils\/numfmt supports padding = LONG_MIN\n#\1\n#\2\n#\3/" tests/misc/numfmt.pl
 
+# Update the GNU error message to match the one generated by clap
+sed -i -e "s/\$prog: multiple field specifications/error: The argument '--field <FIELDS>' was provided more than once, but cannot be used multiple times\n\nUsage: numfmt [OPTION]... [NUMBER]...\n\n\nFor more information try '--help'/g" tests/misc/numfmt.pl
+
 # GNU doesn't support width > INT_MAX
 # disable these test cases
 sed -i -E "s|^([^#]*2_31.*)$|#\1|g" tests/misc/printf-cov.pl