diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
index f9c8f78c6b..466a800656 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser.py
@@ -142,15 +142,14 @@ class Parser(object):
     WORD = 2
     QUOTED_WORD = 3
     EOF = 4
-    REPLACEMENTS = tuple((u'\\' + x, unichr(i + 1)) for i, x in enumerate(ur'\"()“”'))
+    REPLACEMENTS = tuple((u'\\' + x, unichr(i + 1)) for i, x in enumerate(ur'\"()'))
 
     # Had to translate named constants to numeric values
     lex_scanner = re.Scanner([
             (ur'[()]', lambda x,t: (Parser.OPCODE, t)),
-            (ur'@.+?:[^"“)\s]+', lambda x,t: (Parser.WORD, unicode(t))),
-            (ur'[^"“()\s]+', lambda x,t: (Parser.WORD, unicode(t))),
+            (ur'@.+?:[^")\s]+', lambda x,t: (Parser.WORD, unicode(t))),
+            (ur'[^"()\s]+', lambda x,t: (Parser.WORD, unicode(t))),
             (ur'".*?((?<!\\)")', lambda x,t: (Parser.QUOTED_WORD, t[1:-1])),
-            (ur'“.*?((?<!\\)”)', lambda x,t: (Parser.QUOTED_WORD, t[1:-1])),
             (ur'\s+',              None)
     ], flags=re.DOTALL)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser_test.py b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser_test.py
index e28e658ba6..15a29d42f6 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser_test.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/search_query_parser_test.py
@@ -385,10 +385,8 @@ class TestSQP(unittest.TestCase):
 
         t('xxx', 'W', 'xxx')
         t('"a \\" () b"', 'Q', 'a " () b')
-        t('“a \\"“\\” () b”', 'Q', 'a "“” () b')
         t('"a“b"', 'Q', 'a“b')
         t('"a”b"', 'Q', 'a”b')
-        t('a:“b ”', 'W', 'a:', 'Q', 'b ')
 
 
 def find_tests():