patch.diff

diff --git a/common/src/js/bot/dom.js b/common/src/js/bot/dom.js
index 0ec37dd..600e136 100644
--- a/common/src/js/bot/dom.js
+++ b/common/src/js/bot/dom.js
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ bot.dom.getVisibleText = function(node) {
       if (nodeText.length) {
         if (bot.dom.isClosestAncestorBlockLevel_(elements, i)) {
           returnValue += '\n';
-        } else if (i != 0) { // First element does not need preceding space.
+        } else if (i != 0 && !nodeText[0].match(/[,.:;?!%]/)) { // First element and some symbols do not need preceding space.
           returnValue += ' ';
         }
       }
diff --git a/common/test/js/bot/text_test.html b/common/test/js/bot/text_test.html
index 21d356c..bc195b1 100644
--- a/common/test/js/bot/text_test.html
+++ b/common/test/js/bot/text_test.html
@@ -134,6 +134,11 @@ limitations under the License.
       assertEquals("line has text", text);
     }
 
+    function testGetVisibleTextShouldNotAddExtraSpacesBeforeSomeCharacters() {
+      var text = getVisibleTextByElementId("descartes");
+      assertEquals("Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.", text);
+    }
+
     function testGetVisibleTestGetTextWithLineBreakForInlineElement() {
       var text = getVisibleTextByElementId("label1");
       assertContains("foo\nbar", text);
@@ -219,6 +224,8 @@ limitations under the License.
 
   <div id="collapsingtext"><span></span><div>Hello, world</div><span></span></div>
 
+  <span><strong id="descartes">Dubito, <em>ergo cogito</em>, ergo sum.</strong></span>
+
   <form action="resultPage.html">
       <p>
           <input type="checkbox" id="checkbox1">