diff --git a/src/languages/yaml.js b/src/languages/yaml.js
index 4fc4ba0a28..02a1d9cee2 100644
--- a/src/languages/yaml.js
+++ b/src/languages/yaml.js
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ export default function(hljs) {
   var LITERALS = 'true false yes no null';
 
   // YAML spec allows non-reserved URI characters in tags.
-  var URI_CHARACTERS = '[\\w#;/?:@&=+$,.~*\\\'()[\\]]+'
+  var URI_CHARACTERS = '[\\w#;/?:@&=+$,.~*\\\'()[\\]]+';
 
   // Define keys as starting with a word character
   // ...containing word chars, spaces, colons, forward-slashes, hyphens and periods
@@ -21,25 +21,25 @@ export default function(hljs) {
     className: 'attr',
     variants: [
       { begin: '\\w[\\w :\\/.-]*:(?=[ \t]|$)' },
-      { begin: '"\\w[\\w :\\/.-]*":(?=[ \t]|$)' }, //double quoted keys
-      { begin: '\'\\w[\\w :\\/.-]*\':(?=[ \t]|$)' } //single quoted keys
+      { begin: '"\\w[\\w :\\/.-]*":(?=[ \t]|$)' }, // double quoted keys
+      { begin: '\'\\w[\\w :\\/.-]*\':(?=[ \t]|$)' } // single quoted keys
     ]
   };
 
   var TEMPLATE_VARIABLES = {
     className: 'template-variable',
     variants: [
-      { begin: '\{\{', end: '\}\}' }, // jinja templates Ansible
-      { begin: '%\{', end: '\}' } // Ruby i18n
+      { begin: '{{', end: '}}' }, // jinja templates Ansible
+      { begin: '%{', end: '}' } // Ruby i18n
     ]
   };
   var STRING = {
     className: 'string',
     relevance: 0,
     variants: [
-      {begin: /'/, end: /'/},
-      {begin: /"/, end: /"/},
-      {begin: /\S+/}
+      { begin: /'/, end: /'/ },
+      { begin: /"/, end: /"/ },
+      { begin: /\S+/ }
     ],
     contains: [
       hljs.BACKSLASH_ESCAPE,
@@ -47,85 +47,128 @@ export default function(hljs) {
     ]
   };
 
+  // Strings inside of value containers (objects) can't contain braces,
+  // brackets, or commas
+  var CONTAINER_STRING = hljs.inherit(STRING, {
+    variants: [
+      { begin: /'/, end: /'/ },
+      { begin: /"/, end: /"/ },
+      { begin: /[^\s,{}[\]]+/ }
+    ]
+  });
+
   var DATE_RE = '[0-9]{4}(-[0-9][0-9]){0,2}';
   var TIME_RE = '([Tt \\t][0-9][0-9]?(:[0-9][0-9]){2})?';
   var FRACTION_RE = '(\\.[0-9]*)?';
   var ZONE_RE = '([ \\t])*(Z|[-+][0-9][0-9]?(:[0-9][0-9])?)?';
   var TIMESTAMP = {
     className: 'number',
-    begin: '\\b' + DATE_RE + TIME_RE + FRACTION_RE + ZONE_RE + '\\b',
-  }
+    begin: '\\b' + DATE_RE + TIME_RE + FRACTION_RE + ZONE_RE + '\\b'
+  };
+
+  var VALUE_CONTAINER = {
+    end: ',',
+    endsWithParent: true,
+    excludeEnd: true,
+    contains: [],
+    keywords: LITERALS,
+    relevance: 0
+  };
+  var OBJECT = {
+    begin: '{',
+    end: '}',
+    contains: [VALUE_CONTAINER],
+    illegal: '\\n',
+    relevance: 0
+  };
+  var ARRAY = {
+    begin: '\\[',
+    end: '\\]',
+    contains: [VALUE_CONTAINER],
+    illegal: '\\n',
+    relevance: 0
+  };
+
+  var MODES = [
+    KEY,
+    {
+      className: 'meta',
+      begin: '^---\s*$',
+      relevance: 10
+    },
+    { // multi line string
+      // Blocks start with a | or > followed by a newline
+      //
+      // Indentation of subsequent lines must be the same to
+      // be considered part of the block
+      className: 'string',
+      begin: '[\\|>]([0-9]?[+-])?[ ]*\\n( *)[\\S ]+\\n(\\2[\\S ]+\\n?)*'
+    },
+    { // Ruby/Rails erb
+      begin: '<%[%=-]?',
+      end: '[%-]?%>',
+      subLanguage: 'ruby',
+      excludeBegin: true,
+      excludeEnd: true,
+      relevance: 0
+    },
+    { // named tags
+      className: 'type',
+      begin: '!\\w+!' + URI_CHARACTERS
+    },
+    // https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2784064
+    { // verbatim tags
+      className: 'type',
+      begin: '!<' + URI_CHARACTERS + ">"
+    },
+    { // primary tags
+      className: 'type',
+      begin: '!' + URI_CHARACTERS
+    },
+    { // secondary tags
+      className: 'type',
+      begin: '!!' + URI_CHARACTERS
+    },
+    { // fragment id &ref
+      className: 'meta',
+      begin: '&' + hljs.UNDERSCORE_IDENT_RE + '$'
+    },
+    { // fragment reference *ref
+      className: 'meta',
+      begin: '\\*' + hljs.UNDERSCORE_IDENT_RE + '$'
+    },
+    { // array listing
+      className: 'bullet',
+      // TODO: remove |$ hack when we have proper look-ahead support
+      begin: '\\-(?=[ ]|$)',
+      relevance: 0
+    },
+    hljs.HASH_COMMENT_MODE,
+    {
+      beginKeywords: LITERALS,
+      keywords: { literal: LITERALS }
+    },
+    TIMESTAMP,
+    // numbers are any valid C-style number that
+    // sit isolated from other words
+    {
+      className: 'number',
+      begin: hljs.C_NUMBER_RE + '\\b'
+    },
+    OBJECT,
+    ARRAY,
+    STRING
+  ];
+
+  var VALUE_MODES = [...MODES];
+  VALUE_MODES.pop();
+  VALUE_MODES.push(CONTAINER_STRING);
+  VALUE_CONTAINER.contains = VALUE_MODES;
 
   return {
     name: 'YAML',
     case_insensitive: true,
     aliases: ['yml', 'YAML'],
-    contains: [
-      KEY,
-      {
-        className: 'meta',
-        begin: '^---\s*$',
-        relevance: 10
-      },
-      { // multi line string
-        // Blocks start with a | or > followed by a newline
-        //
-        // Indentation of subsequent lines must be the same to
-        // be considered part of the block
-        className: 'string',
-        begin: '[\\|>]([0-9]?[+-])?[ ]*\\n( *)[\\S ]+\\n(\\2[\\S ]+\\n?)*',
-      },
-      { // Ruby/Rails erb
-        begin: '<%[%=-]?', end: '[%-]?%>',
-        subLanguage: 'ruby',
-        excludeBegin: true,
-        excludeEnd: true,
-        relevance: 0
-      },
-      { // named tags
-        className: 'type',
-        begin: '!\\w+!' + URI_CHARACTERS,
-      },
-      // https://yaml.org/spec/1.2/spec.html#id2784064
-      { // verbatim tags
-        className: 'type',
-        begin: '!<' + URI_CHARACTERS + ">",
-      },
-      { // primary tags
-        className: 'type',
-        begin: '!' + URI_CHARACTERS,
-      },
-      { // secondary tags
-        className: 'type',
-        begin: '!!' + URI_CHARACTERS,
-      },
-      { // fragment id &ref
-        className: 'meta',
-        begin: '&' + hljs.UNDERSCORE_IDENT_RE + '$',
-      },
-      { // fragment reference *ref
-        className: 'meta',
-        begin: '\\*' + hljs.UNDERSCORE_IDENT_RE + '$'
-      },
-      { // array listing
-        className: 'bullet',
-      // TODO: remove |$ hack when we have proper look-ahead support
-      begin: '\\-(?=[ ]|$)',
-        relevance: 0
-      },
-      hljs.HASH_COMMENT_MODE,
-      {
-        beginKeywords: LITERALS,
-        keywords: {literal: LITERALS}
-      },
-      TIMESTAMP,
-      // numbers are any valid C-style number that
-      // sit isolated from other words
-      {
-        className: 'number',
-        begin: hljs.C_NUMBER_RE + '\\b'
-      },
-      STRING
-    ]
+    contains: MODES
   };
 }
diff --git a/test/markup/yaml/inline.expect.txt b/test/markup/yaml/inline.expect.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d12626f0ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/markup/yaml/inline.expect.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+<span class="hljs-attr">foo:</span> [<span class="hljs-string">bar</span>, <span class="hljs-string">bar2</span>, [<span class="hljs-number">1</span>, <span class="hljs-number">2</span>], <span class="hljs-number">3</span>]
+<span class="hljs-attr">foo:</span> {<span class="hljs-attr">bar:</span> [<span class="hljs-number">1</span>, <span class="hljs-number">2</span>], <span class="hljs-attr">baz:</span> {<span class="hljs-attr">inside:</span> <span class="hljs-number">3</span>}}
+<span class="hljs-attr">foo:</span> <span class="hljs-string">ba{}r,ba[]z</span>
diff --git a/test/markup/yaml/inline.txt b/test/markup/yaml/inline.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8dfa15b2ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/markup/yaml/inline.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+foo: [bar, bar2, [1, 2], 3]
+foo: {bar: [1, 2], baz: {inside: 3}}
+foo: ba{}r,ba[]z