diff --git a/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx b/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
index d09f541f9..e51b61bdb 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/arc_eager.pyx
@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ cdef class Shift:
             return 0
         elif st.shifted[st.B(0)] and st.stack_depth() >= 1:
             return 0
+        elif st.at_break() and st.stack_depth() >= 1:
+            return 0
         else:
             return 1
 
@@ -193,6 +195,8 @@ cdef class Reduce:
     cdef bint is_valid(const StateC* st, attr_t label) nogil:
         if st.stack_depth() >= 2:
             return 1
+        elif st.at_break() and st.stack_depth() == 1:
+            return 1
         else:
             return 0
 
@@ -230,10 +234,14 @@ cdef class Reduce:
 cdef class LeftArc:
     @staticmethod
     cdef bint is_valid(const StateC* st, attr_t label) nogil:
-        if st.buffer_length >= 1 and st.stack_depth() >= 1:
-            return 1
-        else:
+        if st.buffer_length == 0:
             return 0
+        elif st.stack_depth() == 0:
+            return 0
+        elif st.at_break():
+            return 0
+        else:
+            return 1
 
     @staticmethod
     cdef int transition(StateC* st, attr_t label) nogil:
@@ -272,6 +280,8 @@ cdef class RightArc:
             return 0
         elif st.buffer_length == 0:
             return 0
+        elif st.at_break():
+            return 0
         # If there's (perhaps partial) parse pre-set, don't allow cycle.
         elif st.H(st.S(0)) == st.B(0):
             return 0
@@ -308,10 +318,16 @@ cdef class RightArc:
 cdef class Break:
     @staticmethod
     cdef bint is_valid(const StateC* st, attr_t label) nogil:
+        # It would seem good to have a stack_depth==1 constraint here.
+        # That would make the other validities much less complicated.
+        # However, we need to know about upcoming sentence break to respect
+        # preset SBD anyway --- so we may as well give the parser the flexibility.
         cdef int i
         if not USE_BREAK:
             return 0
-        if st.stack_depth() != 1:
+        elif st.stack_depth() < 1:
+            return 0
+        elif st._sent[st.B_(0).l_edge].sent_start == -1:
             return 0
         else:
             return 1
@@ -319,7 +335,6 @@ cdef class Break:
     @staticmethod
     cdef int transition(StateC* st, attr_t label) nogil:
         st.set_break(0)
-        st._sent[st.S(0)].dep = label
         st.pop()
 
     @staticmethod
@@ -661,6 +676,7 @@ cdef class ArcEager(TransitionSystem):
                 print(gold.heads)
                 print(gold.labels)
                 print(gold.sent_starts)
+                print(stcls.history)
                 raise ValueError(
                     "Could not find a gold-standard action to supervise the"
                     "dependency parser. The GoldParse was projective. The "
diff --git a/spacy/tests/parser/test_arc_eager_oracle.py b/spacy/tests/parser/test_arc_eager_oracle.py
index ca056ac42..bffe9621b 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/parser/test_arc_eager_oracle.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/parser/test_arc_eager_oracle.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ def test_non_monotonic_sequence_four_words(arc_eager, vocab):
     assert c1['R-right'] != 0.0
     c2 = cost_history.pop(0)
     assert c2['R-right'] != 0.0
-    assert c2['B-ROOT'] == 9000.0
+    assert c2['B-ROOT'] == 0.0
     assert c2['D'] == 0.0
     c3 = cost_history.pop(0)
     assert c3['L-left'] == -1.0
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ def test_oracle_at_sentence_break(arc_eager, vocab):
     c2 = cost_history.pop(0)
     c3 = cost_history.pop(0)
     assert c2['D'] == 0.0
-    assert c2['B-ROOT'] == 9000.0
+    assert c2['B-ROOT'] == 0.0
     assert c3['B-ROOT'] == 0.0
     assert c3['D'] == 9000.0