diff --git a/src/groupchat_control.py b/src/groupchat_control.py
index 85d78e0979a6f6fd66fa5fbf0eff8c3193964566..ffeee0fb13077449e28cd9ee8cee29872290c9c5 100644
--- a/src/groupchat_control.py
+++ b/src/groupchat_control.py
@@ -1349,7 +1349,7 @@ class GroupchatControl(ChatControlBase):
 						# the word is the begining of a nick
 						self.nick_hits.append(nick)
 			if len(self.nick_hits):
-				if len(splitted_text) == 1: # This is the 1st word of the line
+				if len(splitted_text)  < 2: # This is the 1st word of the line or no word
 					add = self.gc_refer_to_nick_char + ' '
 				else:
 					add = ' '