diff --git a/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_native.php b/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_native.php
index fb3726c957..60180f1728 100644
--- a/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_native.php
+++ b/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_native.php
@@ -326,6 +326,12 @@ class fulltext_native extends \phpbb\search\base
 			$this->db->sql_freeresult($result);
 		}
 
+		// 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);
 
diff --git a/tests/search/native_test.php b/tests/search/native_test.php
index 4911160cc0..e860a4f89a 100644
--- a/tests/search/native_test.php
+++ b/tests/search/native_test.php
@@ -119,6 +119,55 @@ class phpbb_search_native_test extends phpbb_search_test_case
 				array(1, 2),
 				array(),
 			),
+			array(
+				'foo -foo',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1),
+				array(1),
+				array(),
+			),
+			array(
+				'-foo foo',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1),
+				array(1),
+				array(),
+			),
+			// some creative edge cases
+			array(
+				'foo foo-',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1),
+				array(),
+				array(),
+			),
+			array(
+				'foo- foo',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1),
+				array(),
+				array(),
+			),
+			array(
+				'foo-bar',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1, 2),
+				array(),
+				array(),
+			),
+			array(
+				'foo-bar-foo',
+				'all',
+				true,
+				array(1, 2),
+				array(),
+				array(),
+			),
 			// all common
 			array(
 				'commonword',