diff --git a/src/app/cursor.coffee b/src/app/cursor.coffee
index c3e0a0591..bf6e058ae 100644
--- a/src/app/cursor.coffee
+++ b/src/app/cursor.coffee
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ class Cursor
 
   isSurroundedByWhitespace: ->
     {row, column} = @getBufferPosition()
-    range = [[row, column + 1], [row, Math.max(0, column - 1)]]
+    range = [[row, Math.min(0, column - 1)], [row, Math.max(0, column + 1)]]
     /^\s+$/.test @editSession.getTextInBufferRange(range)
 
   autoscrolled: ->