diff --git a/src/runtime/python/examples/translation_pipeline.py b/src/runtime/python/examples/translation_pipeline.py
index a011a5366..47b189a0a 100644
--- a/src/runtime/python/examples/translation_pipeline.py
+++ b/src/runtime/python/examples/translation_pipeline.py
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ def pipeline_lexer(sentence):
 
 def web_lexer(grammar, lang, sentences):
     for instance in sentences:
-	tokensList = re.split('\s+?', instance);
+	tokensList = re.split('\s+?', instance.strip());
 	for idx, token in enumerate(tokensList):
 	    if not token[0].isupper():
 		continue;