Use quotes and curly brackets if needed

~ $ ls tmp/
a b
~ $ VAR="tmp/*"
~ $ echo $VAR #surprisingly got directory echoed
tmp/a tmp/b

$ echo "$VAR"
tmp/*
~ $ echo $VARa

~ $ echo "$VARa“

~ $ echo "${VAR}a" #Good Practice
?tmp/*a
~ $ echo ${VAR}a
?tmp/a