diff --git a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native.php b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native.php
index dc961f3c8a..7fff83db58 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native.php
@@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ class fulltext_native extends search_backend
 		}
 		unset($exact_words);
 
+		// Handle +, - without preceeding whitespace character
+		$match		= array('#(\S)\+#', '#(\S)-#');
+		$replace	= array('$1 +', '$1 +');
+
+		$keywords = preg_replace($match, $replace, $keywords);
+
 		// now analyse the search query, first split it using the spaces
 		$query = explode(' ', $keywords);