diff --git a/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee b/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
index 522e4372e..d9fe55c03 100644
--- a/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
@@ -417,6 +417,10 @@ describe "Editor", ->
         expect(cursor2.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [1, 11]
         expect(cursor3.getBufferPosition()).toEqual [2, 39]
 
+      it "does not fail at position [0, 0]", ->
+        editor.setCursorBufferPosition([0, 0])
+        editor.trigger 'move-to-beginning-of-word'
+
     describe "move-to-end-of-word", ->
       it "moves the cursor to the end of the word", ->
         editor.setCursorBufferPosition [0, 6]
diff --git a/src/app/cursor.coffee b/src/app/cursor.coffee
index 01f145623..47cbefe16 100644
--- a/src/app/cursor.coffee
+++ b/src/app/cursor.coffee
@@ -101,15 +101,14 @@ class Cursor extends View
 
   getBeginningOfCurrentWordBufferPosition: (options = {}) ->
     allowPrevious = options.allowPrevious ? true
-    position = null
-    bufferPosition = @getBufferPosition()
-    range = [[0,0], bufferPosition]
+    currentBufferPosition = @getBufferPosition()
+    beginningOfWordPosition = currentBufferPosition
+    range = [[0,0], currentBufferPosition]
     @editor.backwardsTraverseRegexMatchesInRange @wordRegex, range, (match, matchRange, { stop }) =>
-      position = matchRange.start
-      if not allowPrevious and matchRange.end.isLessThan(bufferPosition)
-        position = bufferPosition
+      if matchRange.end.isGreaterThanOrEqual(currentBufferPosition) or allowPrevious
+        beginningOfWordPosition = matchRange.start
       stop()
-    position
+    beginningOfWordPosition
 
   getEndOfCurrentWordBufferPosition: (options = {}) ->
     allowNext = options.allowNext ? true