diff --git a/spacy/en/pos.pyx b/spacy/en/pos.pyx
index 1094d5c09..a38745165 100644
--- a/spacy/en/pos.pyx
+++ b/spacy/en/pos.pyx
@@ -335,7 +335,8 @@ cdef class EnPosTagger:
         cdef unicode lemma_string
         lemma_strings = self.lemmatizer(py_string, pos)
         lemma_string = sorted(lemma_strings)[0]
-        lemma = self.strings.intern(lemma_string.encode('utf8'), len(lemma_string)).i
+        raw_string = lemma_string.encode('utf8')
+        lemma = self.strings.intern(raw_string, len(raw_string)).i
         return lemma
 
     def load_morph_exceptions(self, dict exc):
diff --git a/tests/test_unicode_lemmas.py b/tests/test_unicode_lemmas.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42e5866d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_unicode_lemmas.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# encoding=utf8
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+from spacy.en import English
+import pytest
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def tokens():
+    return English()(u'ćode codé')
+
+
+def test_unicode(tokens):
+    assert tokens[0].lemma_ == u'ćode'
+    assert tokens[1].lemma_ == u'codé'