diff --git a/app/src/main/java/io/github/sspanak/tt9/ime/CommandHandler.java b/app/src/main/java/io/github/sspanak/tt9/ime/CommandHandler.java
index 987f008c..c7ed1bd9 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/io/github/sspanak/tt9/ime/CommandHandler.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/io/github/sspanak/tt9/ime/CommandHandler.java
@@ -218,8 +218,8 @@ abstract public class CommandHandler extends TextEditingHandler {
 		}
 
 		// if there are no suggestions or they are special chars, we don't need to adjust their text case
-		final String before = suggestionOps.getCurrent();
-		boolean beforeStartsWithLetter = !before.isEmpty() && Character.isAlphabetic(before.charAt(0));
+		final String before = suggestionOps.isEmpty() || mInputMode.getSequence().isEmpty() ? "" : suggestionOps.getCurrent();
+		final boolean beforeStartsWithLetter = !before.isEmpty() && Character.isAlphabetic(before.charAt(0));
 		if (!beforeStartsWithLetter) {
 			settings.saveTextCase(mInputMode.getTextCase());
 			return true;