diff --git a/lib/search.rb b/lib/search.rb
index 38024cfcd..007aa7a2d 100644
--- a/lib/search.rb
+++ b/lib/search.rb
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ class Search
         @valid = false
         return
       end
-      @term = terms.join(' ')
+      @term = terms.join(' ') if @term.include?(' ')
     end
 
     # If the term is a number or url to a topic, just include that topic
diff --git a/spec/components/search_spec.rb b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
index f7dac7167..287676e16 100644
--- a/spec/components/search_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
@@ -413,6 +413,7 @@ describe Search do
       skip("skipped until pg app installs the db correctly") if RbConfig::CONFIG["arch"] =~ /darwin/
 
       SiteSetting.default_locale = 'zh_TW'
+      SiteSetting.min_search_term_length = 1
       topic = Fabricate(:topic, title: 'My Title Discourse社區指南')
       post = Fabricate(:post, topic: topic)
 
@@ -424,6 +425,7 @@ describe Search do
       skip("skipped until pg app installs the db correctly") if RbConfig::CONFIG["arch"] =~ /darwin/
 
       SiteSetting.search_tokenize_chinese_japanese_korean = true
+      SiteSetting.min_search_term_length = 1
 
       topic = Fabricate(:topic, title: 'My Title Discourse社區指南')
       post = Fabricate(:post, topic: topic)