diff --git a/spacy/tests/test_cli_app.py b/spacy/tests/test_cli_app.py
index b3527d60d..6f70fc7e0 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/test_cli_app.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/test_cli_app.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from typer.testing import CliRunner
 
 from spacy.cli._util import app
-from .util import make_tempdir, assert_strings_equal_except_ws
+from .util import make_tempdir, normalize_whitespace
 
 
 def test_convert_auto():
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ def test_benchmark_accuracy_alias():
     # Verify that the `evaluate` alias works correctly.
     result_benchmark = CliRunner().invoke(app, ["benchmark", "accuracy", "--help"])
     result_evaluate = CliRunner().invoke(app, ["evaluate", "--help"])
-    assert_strings_equal_except_ws(
-        result_benchmark.stdout,
-        result_evaluate.stdout.replace("spacy evaluate", "spacy benchmark accuracy"),
+    assert normalize_whitespace(result_benchmark.stdout) == normalize_whitespace(
+        result_evaluate.stdout.replace("spacy evaluate", "spacy benchmark accuracy")
     )
diff --git a/spacy/tests/util.py b/spacy/tests/util.py
index aac8579eb..c2647558d 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/util.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/util.py
@@ -98,6 +98,5 @@ def assert_packed_msg_equal(b1, b2):
         assert v1 == v2
 
 
-def assert_strings_equal_except_ws(s1, s2):
-    """Assert that two strings are identical except for whitespace."""
-    assert re.sub(r"\s+", " ", s1) == re.sub(r"\s+", " ", s2)
+def normalize_whitespace(s):
+    return re.sub(r"\s+", " ", s)