diff --git a/spacy/compat.py b/spacy/compat.py
index 8458df7b0..1ca8a59fe 100644
--- a/spacy/compat.py
+++ b/spacy/compat.py
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ is_windows = sys.platform.startswith('win')
 is_linux = sys.platform.startswith('linux')
 is_osx = sys.platform == 'darwin'
 
+fix_text = ftfy.fix_text
+
 
 if is_python2:
     bytes_ = str
@@ -39,9 +41,6 @@ elif is_python3:
     json_dumps = lambda data: ujson.dumps(data, indent=2)
 
 
-fix_text = lambda text: ftfy.fix_text(text)
-
-
 def symlink_to(orig, dest):
     if is_python2 and is_windows:
         import subprocess