diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1380.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1380.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d9cfe1bd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1380.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import pytest
+
+from ...language import Language
+
+def test_issue1380_empty_string():
+    nlp = Language()
+    doc = nlp('')
+    assert len(doc) == 0
+
+@pytest.mark.models('en')
+def test_issue1380_en(EN):
+    doc = EN('')
+    assert len(doc) == 0