diff --git a/src/templateFormatter.test.ts b/src/templateFormatter.test.ts
index 62af828b..366be4ac 100644
--- a/src/templateFormatter.test.ts
+++ b/src/templateFormatter.test.ts
@@ -99,3 +99,13 @@ test("Edge case #1", async () => {
   const result = await renderTemplate("{foo} {bar()}");
   // No "Unclosed function" exception = success
 });
+
+test("Parses empty string args as empty strings", async () => {
+  const result = parseTemplate('{foo("")}');
+  expect(result).toEqual([
+    {
+      identifier: "foo",
+      args: [""],
+    },
+  ]);
+});
diff --git a/src/templateFormatter.ts b/src/templateFormatter.ts
index d5351584..376c85ba 100644
--- a/src/templateFormatter.ts
+++ b/src/templateFormatter.ts
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ export function parseTemplate(str: string): ParsedTemplate {
   const dumpArg = () => {
     if (!currentVar) return;
 
-    if (currentVar._state.currentArg !== null && currentVar._state.currentArg !== "") {
+    if (currentVar._state.currentArgType) {
       if (currentVar._state.currentArgType === "number") {
         if (isNaN(currentVar._state.currentArg as any)) {
           throw new TemplateParseError(`Invalid numeric argument: ${currentVar._state.currentArg}`);
@@ -272,6 +272,9 @@ const baseValues = {
   not(arg) {
     return !arg;
   },
+  concat(...args) {
+    return [...args].join("");
+  },
 };
 
 export async function renderTemplate(template: string, values = {}, includeBaseValues = true) {