diff --git a/lib/internal/event_target.js b/lib/internal/event_target.js
index 4cc561f95c0bba..65b5293673ba72 100644
--- a/lib/internal/event_target.js
+++ b/lib/internal/event_target.js
@@ -396,6 +396,9 @@ function validateListener(listener) {
 }
 
 function validateEventListenerOptions(options) {
+  if (typeof options === 'boolean') {
+    options = { capture: options };
+  }
   if (options == null || typeof options !== 'object')
     throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE('options', 'object', options);
   const {
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-eventtarget.js b/test/parallel/test-eventtarget.js
index 3b44714cfbe2dc..661f515c79cf0e 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-eventtarget.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-eventtarget.js
@@ -112,7 +112,14 @@ ok(EventTarget);
   eventTarget.addEventListener('foo', (event) => event.preventDefault());
   ok(!eventTarget.dispatchEvent(event));
 }
-
+{
+  // Adding event listeners with a boolean useCapture
+  const eventTarget = new EventTarget();
+  const event = new Event('foo');
+  const fn = common.mustCall((event) => strictEqual(event.type, 'foo'));
+  eventTarget.addEventListener('foo', fn, false);
+  eventTarget.dispatchEvent(event);
+}
 {
   const eventTarget = new NodeEventTarget();
   strictEqual(eventTarget.listenerCount('foo'), 0);