diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
index 7879f5a0a69..44db63e2769 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/__init__.py
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ def check_conditional(conditional, basedir, inject, fail_on_undefined=False):
 
     conditional = conditional.replace("jinja2_compare ","")
     # allow variable names
-    if conditional in inject:
+    if conditional in inject and '-' not in str(inject[conditional]):
         conditional = inject[conditional]
     conditional = template.template(basedir, conditional, inject, fail_on_undefined=fail_on_undefined)
     original = str(conditional).replace("jinja2_compare ","")