diff --git a/spacy/lang/en/stop_words.py b/spacy/lang/en/stop_words.py
index 07d4ff34c..aae3e5e01 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/en/stop_words.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/en/stop_words.py
@@ -69,7 +69,10 @@ yet you your yours yourself yourselves
 """.split()
 )
 
-for hyphen in ["'", "`", "‘", "´", "’"]:
-    for stopword in u"n't 'd 'll 'm 're 's 've".split():
-        STOP_WORDS.add(stopword.replace("'", hyphen))
+contractions = ["n't", "'d", "'ll", "'m", "'re", "'s", "'ve"]
+STOP_WORDS.update(contractions)
+
+for apostrophe in ["‘", "’"]:
+    for stopword in contractions:
+        STOP_WORDS.add(stopword.replace("'", apostrophe))
 
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3449.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3449.py
index 9f670d5aa..61a76334a 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3449.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3449.py
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 # coding: utf8
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import pytest
 
 from spacy.lang.en import English
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3521.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3521.py
index 12f285099..6d841894a 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3521.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue3521.py
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
 # coding: utf8
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import pytest
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "word",
     [
-        u"don't",
-        u"don’t",
-        u"I'd",
-        u"I’d",
+        "don't",
+        "don’t",
+        "I'd",
+        "I’d",
     ],
 )
 def test_issue3521(en_tokenizer, word):