diff --git a/bin/init_model.py b/bin/init_model.py
index 599cd3083..72d7a3aae 100644
--- a/bin/init_model.py
+++ b/bin/init_model.py
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ from pathlib import Path
 
 from shutil import copyfile
 from shutil import copytree
-import codecs
 from collections import defaultdict
+import io
 
 from spacy.vocab import Vocab
 from spacy.vocab import write_binary_vectors
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ def _read_clusters(loc):
         print("Warning: Clusters file not found")
         return {}
     clusters = {}
-    for line in codecs.open(str(loc), 'r', 'utf8'):
+    for line in io.open(str(loc), 'r', encoding='utf8'):
         try:
             cluster, word, freq = line.split()
         except ValueError:
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ def _read_probs(loc):
         print("Probabilities file not found. Trying freqs.")
         return {}, 0.0
     probs = {}
-    for i, line in enumerate(codecs.open(str(loc), 'r', 'utf8')):
+    for i, line in enumerate(io.open(str(loc), 'r', encoding='utf8')):
         prob, word = line.split()
         prob = float(prob)
         probs[word] = prob
diff --git a/bin/ner_tag.py b/bin/ner_tag.py
index 34588bd12..f990f21a1 100644
--- a/bin/ner_tag.py
+++ b/bin/ner_tag.py
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-import codecs
+import io
 import plac
 
 from spacy.en import English
 
 
 def main(text_loc):
-    with codecs.open(text_loc, 'r', 'utf8') as file_:
+    with io.open(text_loc, 'r', encoding='utf8') as file_:
         text = file_.read()
     NLU = English()
     for paragraph in text.split('\n\n'):
diff --git a/bin/parser/train.py b/bin/parser/train.py
index c1f81af33..0a9d34ffc 100755
--- a/bin/parser/train.py
+++ b/bin/parser/train.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 import os
 from os import path
 import shutil
-import codecs
+import io
 import random
 
 import plac
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def write_parses(Language, dev_loc, model_dir, out_loc):
     nlp = Language(data_dir=model_dir)
     gold_tuples = read_json_file(dev_loc)
     scorer = Scorer()
-    out_file = codecs.open(out_loc, 'w', 'utf8')
+    out_file = io.open(out_loc, 'w', 'utf8')
     for raw_text, sents in gold_tuples:
         sents = _merge_sents(sents)
         for annot_tuples, brackets in sents:
diff --git a/bin/prepare_treebank.py b/bin/prepare_treebank.py
index d13ef7130..f9f4eec21 100644
--- a/bin/prepare_treebank.py
+++ b/bin/prepare_treebank.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import json
 from os import path
 import os
 import re
-import codecs
+import io
 from collections import defaultdict
 
 from spacy.munge import read_ptb
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ def read_file(*pieces):
     if not path.exists(loc):
         return None
     else:
-        return codecs.open(loc, 'r', 'utf8').read().strip()
+        return io.open(loc, 'r', encoding='utf8').read().strip()
 
 
 def get_file_names(section_dir, subsection):
diff --git a/spacy/gold.pyx b/spacy/gold.pyx
index 5d0ad36c0..d8b100744 100644
--- a/spacy/gold.pyx
+++ b/spacy/gold.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 import numpy
-import codecs
+import io
+import json
+import ujson
 import random
 import re
 import os
diff --git a/spacy/strings.pyx b/spacy/strings.pyx
index a4a470158..a247fa6a8 100644
--- a/spacy/strings.pyx
+++ b/spacy/strings.pyx
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
+<<<<<<< HEAD
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import codecs
+=======
+import io
+>>>>>>> 8caedba42a5255b9996533a732e17eee3f20a2dd
 
 from libc.string cimport memcpy
 from murmurhash.mrmr cimport hash64
@@ -129,6 +133,7 @@ cdef class StringStore:
 
     def dump(self, loc):
         cdef Utf8Str* string
+<<<<<<< HEAD
         cdef unicode py_string
         cdef int i
         with codecs.open(loc, 'w', 'utf8') as file_:
@@ -138,9 +143,18 @@ cdef class StringStore:
                 file_.write(py_string)
                 if (i+1) != self.size:
                     file_.write(SEPARATOR)
+=======
+        cdef bytes py_string
+        for i in range(self.size):
+            string = &self.strings[i]
+            py_string = string.chars[:string.length]
+            strings.append(py_string.decode('utf8'))
+        with io.open(loc, 'w', encoding='utf8') as file_:
+            file_.write(SEPARATOR.join(strings))
+>>>>>>> 8caedba42a5255b9996533a732e17eee3f20a2dd
 
     def load(self, loc):
-        with codecs.open(loc, 'r', 'utf8') as file_:
+        with io.open(loc, 'r', encoding='utf8') as file_:
             strings = file_.read().split(SEPARATOR)
         if strings == ['']:
             return None
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 9f5b4fe04..93a67c66e 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from os import path
-import codecs
+import io
 import json
 import re
 from .attrs import TAG, HEAD, DEP, ENT_IOB, ENT_TYPE
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ DATA_DIR = path.join(path.dirname(__file__), '..', 'data')
 
 
 def utf8open(loc, mode='r'):
-    return codecs.open(loc, mode, 'utf8')
+    return io.open(loc, mode, encoding='utf8')
 
 
 def read_lang_data(data_dir):
diff --git a/spacy/vocab.pyx b/spacy/vocab.pyx
index 2cc9094eb..d79da8a79 100644
--- a/spacy/vocab.pyx
+++ b/spacy/vocab.pyx
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from libc.stdint cimport uint64_t
 
 import bz2
 from os import path
-import codecs
+import io
 import math
 import json
 
diff --git a/tests/parser/test_parse_navigate.py b/tests/parser/test_parse_navigate.py
index a1c8b1a87..8c76199f4 100644
--- a/tests/parser/test_parse_navigate.py
+++ b/tests/parser/test_parse_navigate.py
@@ -1,13 +1,17 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from os import path
-import codecs
+import io
 
 import pytest
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def sun_text():
+<<<<<<< HEAD:tests/parser/test_parse_navigate.py
     with codecs.open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), '..', 'sun.txt'), 'r', 'utf8') as file_:
+=======
+    with io.open(path.join(path.dirname(__file__), 'sun.txt'), 'r', encoding='utf8') as file_:
+>>>>>>> 8caedba42a5255b9996533a732e17eee3f20a2dd:tests/test_parse_navigate.py
         text = file_.read()
     return text