diff --git a/spacy/pipeline/spancat.py b/spacy/pipeline/spancat.py
index 829def1eb..32c1275a6 100644
--- a/spacy/pipeline/spancat.py
+++ b/spacy/pipeline/spancat.py
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@ class SpanCategorizer(TrainablePipe):
         self._require_labels()
         if subbatch:
             docs = [eg.x for eg in subbatch]
-            spans = self.suggester(docs)
+            spans = build_ngram_suggester(sizes=[1])(docs)
             Y = self.model.ops.alloc2f(spans.dataXd.shape[0], len(self.labels))
             self.model.initialize(X=(docs, spans), Y=Y)
         else: