diff --git a/test/TEST-36-NUMAPOLICY/test.sh b/test/TEST-36-NUMAPOLICY/test.sh
index a0bfd4079a..5c39b7c6d8 100755
--- a/test/TEST-36-NUMAPOLICY/test.sh
+++ b/test/TEST-36-NUMAPOLICY/test.sh
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ TEST_NO_NSPAWN=1
 . "${TEST_BASE_DIR:?}/test-functions"
 
 if qemu_min_version "5.2.0"; then
-    QEMU_OPTIONS="-object memory-backend-ram,id=mem0,size=${QEMU_MEM:-768M} -numa node,memdev=mem0,nodeid=0"
+    QEMU_OPTIONS+=" -object memory-backend-ram,id=mem0,size=${QEMU_MEM:-768M} -numa node,memdev=mem0,nodeid=0"
 else
-    QEMU_OPTIONS="-numa node,nodeid=0"
+    QEMU_OPTIONS+=" -numa node,nodeid=0"
 fi
 
 do_test "$@"
diff --git a/test/TEST-53-ISSUE-16347/test.sh b/test/TEST-53-ISSUE-16347/test.sh
index 7f44c66bff..6d4821d2c1 100755
--- a/test/TEST-53-ISSUE-16347/test.sh
+++ b/test/TEST-53-ISSUE-16347/test.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ set -e
 TEST_DESCRIPTION="test timer units when initial clock is ahead"
 TEST_NO_NSPAWN=1
 
-QEMU_OPTIONS="-rtc base=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S -d '+3 days')"
+QEMU_OPTIONS+=" -rtc base=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S -d '+3 days')"
 
 # shellcheck source=test/test-functions
 . "${TEST_BASE_DIR:?}/test-functions"