diff --git a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native_improved.php b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native_improved.php
index a01ccd64ed..b154f10839 100644
--- a/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native_improved.php
+++ b/phpBB/includes/search/fulltext_native_improved.php
@@ -1383,7 +1383,7 @@ class fulltext_native_improved extends search_backend
 				* We separate them with a space in order to index each character
 				* individually
 				*/
-				$ret .= ' ' . $utf_char;
+				$ret .= ' ' . $utf_char . ' ';
 				continue;
 			}