diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngtsc/annotations/component/src/handler.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngtsc/annotations/component/src/handler.ts
index da81f81919a..3c5072882f4 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngtsc/annotations/component/src/handler.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/src/ngtsc/annotations/component/src/handler.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import {AnimationTriggerNames, compileClassMetadata, compileComponentFromMetadat
 import ts from 'typescript';
 
 import {Cycle, CycleAnalyzer, CycleHandlingStrategy} from '../../../cycles';
-import {ErrorCode, FatalDiagnosticError, makeDiagnostic} from '../../../diagnostics';
+import {ErrorCode, FatalDiagnosticError, makeDiagnostic, makeRelatedInformation} from '../../../diagnostics';
 import {absoluteFrom, relative} from '../../../file_system';
 import {assertSuccessfulReferenceEmit, ImportedFile, ModuleResolver, Reference, ReferenceEmitter} from '../../../imports';
 import {DependencyTracker} from '../../../incremental/api';
@@ -260,7 +260,12 @@ export class ComponentDecoratorHandler implements
       }
       diagnostics.push(makeDiagnostic(
           ErrorCode.COMPONENT_NOT_STANDALONE, component.get('imports')!,
-          `'imports' is only valid on a component that is standalone.`));
+          `'imports' is only valid on a component that is standalone.`,
+          [makeRelatedInformation(
+              node.name, `Did you forget to add 'standalone: true' to this @Component?`)]));
+      // Poison the component so that we don't spam further template type-checking errors that
+      // result from misconfigured imports.
+      isPoisoned = true;
     } else if (component.has('imports')) {
       const expr = component.get('imports')!;
       const imported = this.evaluator.evaluate(expr);
diff --git a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngtsc/standalone_spec.ts b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngtsc/standalone_spec.ts
index d8c03cd618a..9a50ff8cc83 100644
--- a/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngtsc/standalone_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler-cli/test/ngtsc/standalone_spec.ts
@@ -353,6 +353,32 @@ runInEachFileSystem(() => {
         expect(diags).toContain(`Type 'number' is not assignable to type 'string'.`);
         expect(diags).toContain(`Type 'boolean' is not assignable to type 'string'.`);
       });
+
+      it('should not spam errors if imports is misconfigured', () => {
+        env.write('test.ts', `
+          import {Component, Input} from '@angular/core';
+
+          @Component({
+            standalone: true,
+            selector: 'dep-cmp',
+            template: '',
+          })
+          export class DepCmp {}
+
+          @Component({
+            // missing standalone: true, would ordinarily cause template type-checking errors
+            // as well as an error about imports on a non-standalone component.
+            imports: [DepCmp],
+            selector: 'test-cmp',
+            template: '<dep-cmp></dep-cmp>',
+          })
+          export class TestCmp {}
+        `);
+
+        const diags = env.driveDiagnostics();
+        expect(diags.length).toBe(1);
+        expect(diags[0].messageText).toContain('imports');
+      });
     });
 
     describe('NgModule-side', () => {