diff --git a/lib/ansible/errors/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/errors/__init__.py
index f46c4f34c9..d8f6a61c97 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/errors/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/errors/__init__.py
@@ -19,10 +19,9 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
-import os
-
 from ansible.errors.yaml_strings import *
-from ansible.utils.unicode import to_unicode, to_bytes
+from ansible.utils.unicode import to_unicode, to_str
+
 
 class AnsibleError(Exception):
     '''
@@ -49,7 +48,7 @@ class AnsibleError(Exception):
         if obj and isinstance(obj, AnsibleBaseYAMLObject):
             extended_error = self._get_extended_error()
             if extended_error:
-                self.message = 'ERROR! %s\n\n%s' % (message, to_bytes(extended_error))
+                self.message = 'ERROR! %s\n\n%s' % (message, to_str(extended_error))
         else:
             self.message = 'ERROR! %s' % message
 
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/unicode.py b/lib/ansible/utils/unicode.py
index a63c1960e1..4d69c707ce 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/unicode.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/unicode.py
@@ -251,3 +251,10 @@ def to_bytes(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
 # ensure that a filter will return unicode values.
 def unicode_wrap(func, *args, **kwargs):
     return to_unicode(func(*args, **kwargs), nonstring='passthru')
+
+
+# Alias for converting to native strings.
+if PY3:
+    to_str = to_unicode
+else:
+    to_str = to_bytes