diff --git a/django/core/validators.py b/django/core/validators.py
index 4b9ab1f602..225dd5cba2 100644
--- a/django/core/validators.py
+++ b/django/core/validators.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class URLValidator(RegexValidator):
         r'localhost|' #localhost...
         r'\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})' # ...or ip
         r'(?::\d+)?' # optional port
-        r'(?:/?|/\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)
+        r'(?:/?|[/?]\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)
 
     def __init__(self, verify_exists=False, validator_user_agent=URL_VALIDATOR_USER_AGENT):
         super(URLValidator, self).__init__()
diff --git a/django/forms/fields.py b/django/forms/fields.py
index 4b4594a5c2..3197260fb6 100644
--- a/django/forms/fields.py
+++ b/django/forms/fields.py
@@ -551,12 +551,15 @@ class URLField(CharField):
         self.validators.append(validators.URLValidator(verify_exists=verify_exists, validator_user_agent=validator_user_agent))
 
     def to_python(self, value):
-        # If no URL scheme given, assume http://
-        if value and '://' not in value:
-            value = u'http://%s' % value
-        # If no URL path given, assume /
-        if value and not urlparse.urlsplit(value)[2]:
-            value += '/'
+        if value: 
+            if '://' not in value: 
+                # If no URL scheme given, assume http:// 
+                value = u'http://%s' % value 
+            url_fields = list(urlparse.urlsplit(value)) 
+            if not url_fields[2]: 
+                # the path portion may need to be added before query params 
+                url_fields[2] = '/' 
+                value = urlparse.urlunsplit(url_fields) 
         return super(URLField, self).to_python(value)
 
 class BooleanField(Field):
diff --git a/tests/modeltests/validators/tests.py b/tests/modeltests/validators/tests.py
index de4d94f1af..331f6f0b61 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/validators/tests.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/validators/tests.py
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ SIMPLE_VALIDATORS_VALUES = (
     (URLValidator(), 'http://200.8.9.10/', None),
     (URLValidator(), 'http://200.8.9.10:8000/test', None),
     (URLValidator(), 'http://valid-----hyphens.com/', None),
+    (URLValidator(), 'http://example.com?something=value', None),
+    (URLValidator(), 'http://example.com/index.php?something=value&another=value2', None),
 
     (URLValidator(), 'foo', ValidationError),
     (URLValidator(), 'http://', ValidationError),
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/fields.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/fields.py
index 9bf6022e3f..2efe72d02c 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/fields.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/fields.py
@@ -496,6 +496,10 @@ class TestFields(TestCase):
         f = URLField()
         self.assertEqual(u'http://example.com/', f.clean('http://example.com'))
         self.assertEqual(u'http://example.com/test', f.clean('http://example.com/test'))
+
+    def test_urlfield_ticket11826(self):
+        f = URLField()
+        self.assertEqual(u'http://example.com/?some_param=some_value', f.clean('http://example.com?some_param=some_value'))
         
     # BooleanField ################################################################