diff --git a/scripts/__tests__/verify-i18n-bundle-args.test.mjs b/scripts/__tests__/verify-i18n-bundle-args.test.mjs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f1340c3d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/__tests__/verify-i18n-bundle-args.test.mjs
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
+import { spawnSync } from 'node:child_process';
+import { dirname, resolve } from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
+import { test } from 'node:test';
+
+const HERE = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+const SCRIPT = resolve(HERE, '..', 'verify-i18n-bundle.mjs');
+
+function run(args) {
+  return spawnSync(process.execPath, [SCRIPT, ...args], {
+    encoding: 'utf8',
+  });
+}
+
+test('verify-i18n-bundle --dist rejects a missing path before filesystem checks', () => {
+  const result = run(['--dist']);
+
+  assert.equal(result.status, 2, result.stderr);
+  assert.match(result.stderr, /--dist requires a path/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(result.stderr, /dist directory does not exist/);
+});
+
+test('verify-i18n-bundle --dist rejects another flag as the path value', () => {
+  const result = run(['--dist', '--help']);
+
+  assert.equal(result.status, 2, result.stderr);
+  assert.match(result.stderr, /--dist requires a path/);
+  assert.doesNotMatch(result.stderr, /dist directory does not exist/);
+});
diff --git a/scripts/verify-i18n-bundle.mjs b/scripts/verify-i18n-bundle.mjs
index 2e02d0e34..9e124a95f 100644
--- a/scripts/verify-i18n-bundle.mjs
+++ b/scripts/verify-i18n-bundle.mjs
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ for (let i = 2; i < process.argv.length; i += 1) {
   const arg = process.argv[i];
   if (arg === "--dist") {
     const value = process.argv[i + 1];
-    if (!value) {
+    if (!value || value.startsWith("-")) {
       console.error("verify-i18n-bundle: --dist requires a path");
       process.exit(2);
     }