diff --git a/src/sage/modular/arithgroup/farey_symbol.pyx b/src/sage/modular/arithgroup/farey_symbol.pyx
index 34546c082da..4cfb4b12363 100644
--- a/src/sage/modular/arithgroup/farey_symbol.pyx
+++ b/src/sage/modular/arithgroup/farey_symbol.pyx
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 # distutils: sources = sage/modular/arithgroup/sl2z.cpp sage/modular/arithgroup/farey.cpp
+# distutils: language = c++
+# distutils: extra_compile_args = -std=c++11
 # sage.doctest: needs sage.libs.pari
 r"""
 Farey symbol for arithmetic subgroups of `\PSL_2(\ZZ)`