diff --git a/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_explain.py b/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_explain.py
index df707bc38..2d71588cc 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_explain.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_explain.py
@@ -8,57 +8,58 @@ from spacy.util import get_lang_class
 # "is" seems to confuse importlib, so we're also excluding it for now
 # excluded: ja, ru, th, uk, vi, zh, is
 LANGUAGES = [
-    "af",
-    "ar",
-    "bg",
+    pytest.param("fr", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("af", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("ar", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("bg", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
     "bn",
-    pytest.param("ca", marks=pytest.mark.xfail()),
-    "cs",
-    "da",
-    "de",
+    pytest.param("ca", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("cs", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("da", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("de", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
     "el",
     "en",
-    "es",
-    "et",
-    "fa",
-    "fi",
-    pytest.param("fr", marks=pytest.mark.xfail()),
-    "ga",
-    "he",
-    "hi",
-    "hr",
-    pytest.param("hu", marks=pytest.mark.xfail()),
-    "id",
-    "it",
-    "kn",
-    "lt",
-    "lv",
-    "nb",
-    "nl",
-    pytest.param("pl", marks=pytest.mark.xfail()),
-    "pt",
-    "ro",
-    "si",
-    "sk",
-    "sl",
-    "sq",
-    "sr",
-    "sv",
-    "ta",
-    "te",
-    "tl",
-    "tr",
-    "tt",
-    "ur",
+    pytest.param("es", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("et", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("fa", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("fi", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    "fr",
+    pytest.param("ga", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("he", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("hi", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("hr", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    "hu",
+    pytest.param("id", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("it", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("kn", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("lb", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("lt", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("lv", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("nb", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("nl", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    "pl",
+    pytest.param("pt", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("ro", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("si", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("sk", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("sl", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("sq", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("sr", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("sv", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("ta", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("te", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("tl", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("tr", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("tt", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
+    pytest.param("ur", marks=pytest.mark.slow()),
 ]
 
 
-@pytest.mark.slow
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("lang", LANGUAGES)
 def test_tokenizer_explain(lang):
-    nlp = get_lang_class(lang)()
+    tokenizer = get_lang_class(lang).Defaults.create_tokenizer()
     examples = pytest.importorskip("spacy.lang.{}.examples".format(lang))
     for sentence in examples.sentences:
-        tokens = [t.text for t in nlp.tokenizer(sentence) if not t.is_space]
-        debug_tokens = [t[1] for t in nlp.tokenizer.explain(sentence)]
+        tokens = [t.text for t in tokenizer(sentence) if not t.is_space]
+        debug_tokens = [t[1] for t in tokenizer.explain(sentence)]
         assert tokens == debug_tokens
diff --git a/spacy/tokenizer.pyx b/spacy/tokenizer.pyx
index f95b44283..230f41921 100644
--- a/spacy/tokenizer.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokenizer.pyx
@@ -461,20 +461,20 @@ cdef class Tokenizer:
                         break
                     if prefix_search(substring):
                         split = prefix_search(substring).end()
+                        # break if pattern matches the empty string
+                        if split == 0:
+                            break
                         tokens.append(("PREFIX", substring[:split]))
                         substring = substring[split:]
                         if substring in special_cases:
                             continue
-                        # break if pattern matches the empty string
-                        if split == 0:
-                            break
                     if suffix_search(substring):
                         split = suffix_search(substring).start()
-                        suffixes.append(("SUFFIX", substring[split:]))
-                        substring = substring[:split]
                         # break if pattern matches the empty string
                         if split == len(substring):
                             break
+                        suffixes.append(("SUFFIX", substring[split:]))
+                        substring = substring[:split]
                 if substring in special_cases:
                     tokens.extend(("SPECIAL-" + str(i + 1), self.vocab.strings[e[ORTH]]) for i, e in enumerate(special_cases[substring]))
                     substring = ''
@@ -485,8 +485,10 @@ cdef class Tokenizer:
                     infixes = infix_finditer(substring)
                     offset = 0
                     for match in infixes:
-                        tokens.append(("TOKEN", substring[offset : match.start()]))
-                        tokens.append(("INFIX", substring[match.start() : match.end()]))
+                        if substring[offset : match.start()]:
+                            tokens.append(("TOKEN", substring[offset : match.start()]))
+                        if substring[match.start() : match.end()]:
+                            tokens.append(("INFIX", substring[match.start() : match.end()]))
                         offset = match.end()
                     if substring[offset:]:
                         tokens.append(("TOKEN", substring[offset:]))