General syntax error occurred at the beginning of the line. In most cases it happens because of missing semicolon at the end of the statement in the previous line, see this:
a=5
b=4; // <---
here syntax error probably missing semicolon
but on some occassions the reason may be simply incorrect syntax at the beginning of the line:
a=5;
+b=4; // <--
the same error message but the problem is about an extra + character at
the beginning of the line