diff --git a/package/pv/pv.mk b/package/pv/pv.mk
index ab5190a43a..0ba8f5f7b2 100644
--- a/package/pv/pv.mk
+++ b/package/pv/pv.mk
@@ -9,7 +9,13 @@ PV_SOURCE = pv-$(PV_VERSION).tar.bz2
 PV_SITE = http://www.ivarch.com/programs/sources
 PV_LICENSE = Artistic-2.0
 PV_LICENSE_FILES = doc/COPYING
-PV_DEPENDENCIES = $(if $(BR2_NEEDS_GETTEXT_IF_LOCALE),gettext)
+
+# pv configure script is somewhat stupid: if it cannot find the host
+# gettext tool msgfmt, it concludes that gettext is not available, and
+# provides its own minimal version. Unfortunately, this minimal
+# version conflicts with the available target gettext. We fix this by
+# ensuring that host-gettext is built if gettext support is enabled;
+PV_DEPENDENCIES = $(if $(BR2_NEEDS_GETTEXT_IF_LOCALE),gettext host-gettext)
 
 # While 'pv' uses autoconf, it does not use automake for its
 # makefiles. It uses $(LD) $(LDFLAGS) to achieve partial linking, but