diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
index 03a0047927..e87a8021f9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
@@ -216,8 +216,8 @@ class HTMLPreProcessor(object):
                   (re.compile(u'¸\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*C', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'Ç'),
 
                   # ˛
-                  (re.compile(u'˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*a', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'ą'),
-                  (re.compile(u'˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*A', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'Ą'),
+                  (re.compile(u'\s*˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*a', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'ą'),
+                  (re.compile(u'\s*˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*A', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'Ą'),
                   (re.compile(u'˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*e', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'ę'),
                   (re.compile(u'˛\s*(<br.*?>)*\s*E', re.UNICODE), lambda match: u'Ę'),