diff --git a/lib/fs.js b/lib/fs.js
index 0025e6a69de2ef..cf97eb236da02d 100644
--- a/lib/fs.js
+++ b/lib/fs.js
@@ -1615,6 +1615,11 @@ function ReadStream(path, options) {
   if (!(this instanceof ReadStream))
     return new ReadStream(path, options);
 
+  if (typeof options === 'string')
+    options = { encoding: options };
+  else if (options && typeof options !== 'object')
+    throw new TypeError('Bad arguments');
+
   // a little bit bigger buffer and water marks by default
   options = Object.create(options || {});
   if (options.highWaterMark === undefined)
@@ -1781,6 +1786,11 @@ function WriteStream(path, options) {
   if (!(this instanceof WriteStream))
     return new WriteStream(path, options);
 
+  if (typeof options === 'string')
+    options = { encoding: options };
+  else if (options && typeof options !== 'object')
+    throw new TypeError('Bad arguments');
+
   options = options || {};
 
   Writable.call(this, options);
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-read-stream-throw-type-error.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-read-stream-throw-type-error.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..0bc7ccc3b2a3e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-read-stream-throw-type-error.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+
+const example = path.join(common.fixturesDir, 'x.txt');
+assert.throws(function() { fs.createReadStream(example, 123); }, TypeError);
+assert.throws(function() { fs.createReadStream(example, true); }, TypeError);
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-fs-write-stream-throw-type-error.js b/test/parallel/test-fs-write-stream-throw-type-error.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..45500db17e6e57
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-fs-write-stream-throw-type-error.js
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+const common = require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+
+const example = path.join(common.tmpDir, '/dummy');
+assert.throws(function() { fs.createReadStream(example, 123); }, TypeError);
+assert.throws(function() { fs.createReadStream(example, true); }, TypeError);