diff --git a/clang/lib/Tooling/InterpolatingCompilationDatabase.cpp b/clang/lib/Tooling/InterpolatingCompilationDatabase.cpp
--- a/clang/lib/Tooling/InterpolatingCompilationDatabase.cpp
+++ b/clang/lib/Tooling/InterpolatingCompilationDatabase.cpp
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@
                         types::ID PreferLanguage) const {
     assert(!empty() && "need at least one candidate!");
     std::string Filename = OriginalFilename.lower();
-    auto Candidates = scoreCandidates(Filename);
+    auto Candidates = scoreCandidates(Filename, PreferLanguage);
     std::pair<size_t, int> Best =
         pickWinner(Candidates, Filename, PreferLanguage);
 
@@ -378,7 +378,8 @@
 
   // Award points to candidate entries that should be considered for the file.
   // Returned keys are indexes into paths, and the values are (nonzero) scores.
-  DenseMap<size_t, int> scoreCandidates(StringRef Filename) const {
+  DenseMap<size_t, int> scoreCandidates(StringRef Filename,
+                                        types::ID PreferredLanguage) const {
     // Decompose Filename into the parts we care about.
     // /some/path/complicated/project/Interesting.h
     // [-prefix--][---dir---] [-dir-] [--stem---]
@@ -410,6 +411,25 @@
     // Award one more point if the whole rest of the path matches.
     if (sys::path::root_directory(Prefix) != Prefix)
       Award(1, indexLookup</*Prefix=*/true>(Prefix, Paths));
+
+    bool CandidateWithMatchingLanguageFound = false;
+    for (const auto &C : Candidates) {
+      if (Types[C.first] == PreferredLanguage) {
+        CandidateWithMatchingLanguageFound = true;
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+    if (!CandidateWithMatchingLanguageFound) {
+      // If none of the candidates we found so far use preferred language, try
+      // all other files, even if they are far away in the dir hierarchy.
+      for (size_t I = 0; I < OriginalPaths.size(); ++I) {
+        // Increase score by one. The actual value doesn't matter, the point is
+        // to have some candidates matching PreferredLanguage in the Candidates
+        // set at all.
+        if (Types[I] == PreferredLanguage)
+          Candidates[I] += 1;
+      }
+    }
     return Candidates;
   }
 
diff --git a/clang/unittests/Tooling/CompilationDatabaseTest.cpp b/clang/unittests/Tooling/CompilationDatabaseTest.cpp
--- a/clang/unittests/Tooling/CompilationDatabaseTest.cpp
+++ b/clang/unittests/Tooling/CompilationDatabaseTest.cpp
@@ -755,6 +755,7 @@
 }
 
 TEST_F(InterpolateTest, Language) {
+  add("aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/file.c", "");
   add("dir/foo.cpp", "-std=c++17");
   add("dir/bar.c", "");
   add("dir/baz.cee", "-x c");
@@ -774,7 +775,10 @@
   EXPECT_EQ(getCommand("baz.h"), "clang -D dir/baz.cee -x c-header");
   // prefer a worse match with the right extension.
   EXPECT_EQ(getCommand("foo.c"), "clang -D dir/bar.c");
+  // even when it is far away.
+  EXPECT_EQ(getCommand("aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/file.hpp"), "clang -D dir/aux.cpp");
   Entries.erase(path(StringRef("dir/bar.c")));
+  Entries.erase(path(StringRef("aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd/file.c")));
   // Now we transfer across languages, so drop -std too.
   EXPECT_EQ(getCommand("foo.c"), "clang -D dir/foo.cpp");
   // Prefer -x over -std when overriding language.