diff --git a/django/core/defaulttags.py b/django/core/defaulttags.py
index 4e1b4e551c..5898352a10 100644
--- a/django/core/defaulttags.py
+++ b/django/core/defaulttags.py
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ class I18NNode(template.Node):
 
     def __init__(self, cmd):
         self.cmd = cmd
-        self.i18n_re = re.compile(r'^\s*_\((.*)\)\s*$')
+        self.i18n_re = re.compile(r'^\s*(_|gettext|gettext_noop)\((.*)\)\s*$')
         self.ngettext_re = re.compile(r'''^\s*ngettext\(((?:".+")|(?:'.+')|(?:""".+"""))\s*,\s*((?:".+")|(?:'.+')|(?:""".+"""))\s*,\s*(.*)\)\s*$''')
 
     def _resolve_var(self, s, context):
@@ -307,8 +307,14 @@ class I18NNode(template.Node):
     def render(self, context):
         m = self.i18n_re.match(self.cmd)
         if m:
-            s = self._resolve_var(m.group(1), context)
-            return translation.gettext(s) % context
+            f = m.group(1)
+            s = self._resolve_var(m.group(2), context)
+            if f in ('_', 'gettext'):
+                return translation.gettext(s) % context
+            elif f == 'gettext_noop':
+                return translation.gettext_noop(s) % context
+            else:
+                raise template.TemplateSyntaxError("i18n only supports _, gettext, gettext_noop and ngettext as functions, not %s" % f)
         m = self.ngettext_re.match(self.cmd)
         if m:
             singular = self._resolve_var(m.group(1), context)
diff --git a/tests/othertests/templates.py b/tests/othertests/templates.py
index f848863f4b..0204303bbd 100644
--- a/tests/othertests/templates.py
+++ b/tests/othertests/templates.py
@@ -238,6 +238,9 @@ TEMPLATE_TESTS = {
 
     # translation of plural form
     'i18n09': ('{% i18n ngettext("singular", "plural", count) %}', {'count': 2}, "plural"),
+
+    # simple non-translation (only marking) of a string to german
+    'i18n10': ('{% i18n gettext_noop("Page not found") %}', {'LANGUAGE_CODE': 'de'}, "Page not found"),
 }
 
 # This replaces the standard template_loader.