diff --git a/mapstructure.go b/mapstructure.go
index 81b0c01..b0ab9a3 100644
--- a/mapstructure.go
+++ b/mapstructure.go
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // The mapstructure package exposes functionality to convert an
-// abitrary map[string]interface{} into a native Go structure.
+// arbitrary map[string]interface{} into a native Go structure.
 //
 // The Go structure can be arbitrarily complex, containing slices,
 // other structs, etc. and the decoder will properly decode nested
@@ -660,14 +660,6 @@
 			fieldType := structType.Field(i)
 			fieldKind := fieldType.Type.Kind()
 
-			if fieldType.Anonymous {
-				if fieldKind != reflect.Struct {
-					errors = appendErrors(errors,
-						fmt.Errorf("%s: unsupported type: %s", fieldType.Name, fieldKind))
-					continue
-				}
-			}
-
 			// If "squash" is specified in the tag, we squash the field down.
 			squash := false
 			tagParts := strings.Split(fieldType.Tag.Get(d.config.TagName), ",")
@@ -707,7 +699,7 @@
 		if !rawMapVal.IsValid() {
 			// Do a slower search by iterating over each key and
 			// doing case-insensitive search.
-			for dataValKey, _ := range dataValKeys {
+			for dataValKey := range dataValKeys {
 				mK, ok := dataValKey.Interface().(string)
 				if !ok {
 					// Not a string key
@@ -755,7 +747,7 @@
 
 	if d.config.ErrorUnused && len(dataValKeysUnused) > 0 {
 		keys := make([]string, 0, len(dataValKeysUnused))
-		for rawKey, _ := range dataValKeysUnused {
+		for rawKey := range dataValKeysUnused {
 			keys = append(keys, rawKey.(string))
 		}
 		sort.Strings(keys)
@@ -770,7 +762,7 @@
 
 	// Add the unused keys to the list of unused keys if we're tracking metadata
 	if d.config.Metadata != nil {
-		for rawKey, _ := range dataValKeysUnused {
+		for rawKey := range dataValKeysUnused {
 			key := rawKey.(string)
 			if name != "" {
 				key = fmt.Sprintf("%s.%s", name, key)
diff --git a/mapstructure_test.go b/mapstructure_test.go
index ea21924..f949572 100644
--- a/mapstructure_test.go
+++ b/mapstructure_test.go
@@ -42,6 +42,13 @@
 	Vunique string
 }
 
+type SliceAlias []string
+
+type EmbeddedSlice struct {
+	SliceAlias `mapstructure:"slice_alias"`
+	Vunique    string
+}
+
 type SquashOnNonStructType struct {
 	InvalidSquashType int `mapstructure:",squash"`
 }
@@ -271,8 +278,41 @@
 
 	var result EmbeddedPointer
 	err := Decode(input, &result)
-	if err == nil {
-		t.Fatal("should get error")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	expected := EmbeddedPointer{
+		Basic: &Basic{
+			Vstring: "innerfoo",
+		},
+		Vunique: "bar",
+	}
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(result, expected) {
+		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", result)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestDecode_EmbeddedSlice(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	input := map[string]interface{}{
+		"slice_alias": []string{"foo", "bar"},
+		"vunique":     "bar",
+	}
+
+	var result EmbeddedSlice
+	err := Decode(input, &result)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("got an err: %s", err.Error())
+	}
+
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(result.SliceAlias, SliceAlias([]string{"foo", "bar"})) {
+		t.Errorf("slice value: %#v", result.SliceAlias)
+	}
+
+	if result.Vunique != "bar" {
+		t.Errorf("vunique value should be 'bar': %#v", result.Vunique)
 	}
 }
 
@@ -856,10 +896,10 @@
 	t.Parallel()
 
 	input := []map[string]interface{}{
-		map[string]interface{}{
+		{
 			"foo": "bar",
 		},
-		map[string]interface{}{
+		{
 			"bar": "baz",
 		},
 	}