diff --git a/src/lib/lib.jl b/src/lib/lib.jl
index b46341d39..dc389e316 100644
--- a/src/lib/lib.jl
+++ b/src/lib/lib.jl
@@ -16,9 +16,10 @@ accum(x::Tuple, y::Tuple) = accum.(x, y)
 accum(x::AbstractArray, y::AbstractArray) = accum.(x, y)
 
 @generated function accum(x::NamedTuple, y::NamedTuple)
-  # Zygote assumes that the NamedTuples will have the same keys
-  fieldnames(x) === fieldnames(y) || throw(ArgumentError("$x and $y keys must be the same"))
-  grad(x) = x in fieldnames(y) ? :(y.$x) : :nothing
+  # assumes that y has no keys apart from those also in x
+  fieldnames(y) ⊆ fieldnames(x) || throw(ArgumentError("$y keys must be a subset of $x keys"))
+
+  grad(field) = field in fieldnames(y) ? :(y.$field) : :nothing
   Expr(:tuple, [:($f=accum(x.$f, $(grad(f)))) for f in fieldnames(x)]...)
 end