diff --git a/shell-completion/zsh/_pulseaudio b/shell-completion/zsh/_pulseaudio
index 1c786dc10..5f66ed916 100644
--- a/shell-completion/zsh/_pulseaudio
+++ b/shell-completion/zsh/_pulseaudio
@@ -229,6 +229,8 @@ _pactl_completion() {
     _set_remote
 
     _pactl_command(){
+        local -a _pactl_commands
+
         _pactl_commands=(
             'help: show help and exit'
             'stat: dump statistics about the PulseAudio daemon'