diff --git a/summa/preprocessing/snowball.py b/summa/preprocessing/snowball.py
index 64a166f..c48975b 100644
--- a/summa/preprocessing/snowball.py
+++ b/summa/preprocessing/snowball.py
@@ -3505,7 +3505,8 @@ def stem(self, word):
             if rv.endswith(suffix):
                 if suffix in ("e", "\xE9"):
                     word = word[:-len(suffix)]
-                    rv = rv[:-len(suffix)]
+                    if len(rv) > 1:
+                        rv = rv[:-len(suffix)]
 
                     if word[-2:] == "gu" and rv[-1] == "u":
                         word = word[:-1]