diff --git a/spacy/gold/example.pyx b/spacy/gold/example.pyx
index 21cee7dc4..9e96aaa60 100644
--- a/spacy/gold/example.pyx
+++ b/spacy/gold/example.pyx
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import numpy
 
 from ..tokens import Token
 from ..tokens.doc cimport Doc
+from ..tokens.span cimport Span
+from ..tokens.span import Span
 from ..attrs import IDS
 from .align cimport Alignment
 from .iob_utils import biluo_to_iob, biluo_tags_from_offsets, biluo_tags_from_doc
@@ -19,6 +21,8 @@ cpdef Doc annotations2doc(vocab, tok_annot, doc_annot):
     output = Doc(vocab, words=tok_annot["ORTH"], spaces=tok_annot["SPACY"])
     if array.size:
         output = output.from_array(attrs, array)
+    if "entities" in doc_annot:
+       _add_entities_to_doc(output, doc_annot["entities"])
     # TODO: links ?!
     output.cats.update(doc_annot.get("cats", {}))
     return output
@@ -99,29 +103,6 @@ cdef class Example:
                     output[i] = None
             else:
                 output[i] = gold_values[gold_i]
-
-        if field in ["ENT_IOB"]:
-            # Fix many-to-one IOB codes
-            prev_j = -1
-            prev_value = -1
-            for i, value in enumerate(output):
-                if i in i2j_multi:
-                    j = i2j_multi[i]
-                    if j == prev_j and prev_value == value == 3:
-                        output[i] = 1  # set B to I
-                    prev_j = j
-                else:
-                    prev_j = -1
-                prev_value = value
-
-        if field in ["ENT_IOB", "ENT_TYPE", "ENT_KB_ID"]:
-            # Assign one-to-many NER tags
-            for j, cand_j in enumerate(gold_to_cand):
-                if cand_j is None:
-                    if j in j2i_multi:
-                        i = j2i_multi[j]
-                        if output[i] is None:
-                            output[i] = gold_values[j]
         if as_string and field not in ["ENT_IOB", "SENT_START"]:
             output = [vocab.strings[o] if o is not None else o for o in output]
         return output
@@ -145,15 +126,30 @@ cdef class Example:
 
     def get_aligned_ner(self):
         x_ents = []
+        gold_to_cand = self.alignment.gold_to_cand
         for y_ent in self.y.ents:
-            x_span = self.x.char_span(y_ent.start_char, y_ent.end_char, label=y_ent.label)
-            if x_span is not None:
-                x_ents.append(x_span)
+            x_start = gold_to_cand[y_ent.start]
+            x_end = gold_to_cand[y_ent.end-1]
+            if x_start is not None and x_end is not None:
+                x_ents.append(Span(self.x, x_start, x_end+1, label=y_ent.label))
+            else:
+                x_span = self.x.char_span(
+                    y_ent.start_char,
+                    y_ent.end_char,
+                    label=y_ent.label
+                )
+                if x_span is not None:
+                    x_ents.append(x_span)
         x_tags = biluo_tags_from_offsets(
             self.x, 
             [(e.start_char, e.end_char, e.label_) for e in x_ents],
             missing="O"
         )
+        for token in self.y:
+            if token.ent_iob == 0:
+                cand_i = gold_to_cand[token.i]
+                if cand_i is not None:
+                    x_tags[cand_i] = None
         return x_tags
 
     def to_dict(self):
@@ -222,11 +218,7 @@ def _annot2array(vocab, tok_annot, doc_annot):
     for key, value in doc_annot.items():
         if value:
             if key == "entities":
-                words = tok_annot["ORTH"]
-                spaces = tok_annot["SPACY"]
-                ent_iobs, ent_types = _parse_ner_tags(value, vocab, words, spaces)
-                tok_annot["ENT_IOB"] = ent_iobs
-                tok_annot["ENT_TYPE"] = ent_types
+                pass
             elif key == "links":
                 entities = doc_annot.get("entities", {})
                 if value and not entities:
@@ -252,13 +244,6 @@ def _annot2array(vocab, tok_annot, doc_annot):
         elif key == "MORPH":
             attrs.append(key)
             values.append([vocab.morphology.add(v) for v in value])
-        elif key == "ENT_IOB":
-            iob_strings = Token.iob_strings()
-            attrs.append(key)
-            try:
-                values.append([iob_strings.index(v) for v in value])
-            except ValueError:
-                raise ValueError(Errors.E982.format(values=iob_strings, value=values))
         else:
             attrs.append(key)
             values.append([vocab.strings.add(v) for v in value])
@@ -267,6 +252,29 @@ def _annot2array(vocab, tok_annot, doc_annot):
     return attrs, array.T
 
 
+def _add_entities_to_doc(doc, ner_data):
+    if ner_data is None:
+        return
+    elif ner_data == []:
+        doc.ents = []
+    elif isinstance(ner_data[0], tuple):
+        return _add_entities_to_doc(
+            doc,
+            biluo_tags_from_offsets(doc, ner_data)
+        )
+    elif isinstance(ner_data[0], str) or ner_data[0] is None:
+        return _add_entities_to_doc(
+            doc,
+            spans_from_biluo_tags(doc, ner_data)
+        )
+    elif isinstance(ner_data[0], Span):
+        # Ugh, this is super messy. Really hard to set O entities
+        doc.ents = ner_data
+        doc.ents = [span for span in ner_data if span.label_]
+    else:
+        raise ValueError("Unexpected type for NER data")
+
+
 def _parse_example_dict_data(example_dict):
     return (
         example_dict["token_annotation"],
@@ -332,7 +340,7 @@ def _parse_ner_tags(biluo_or_offsets, vocab, words, spaces):
     ent_iobs = []
     ent_types = []
     for iob_tag in biluo_to_iob(biluo):
-        if iob_tag is None:
+        if iob_tag in (None, "-"):
             ent_iobs.append("")
             ent_types.append("")
         else: