lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm |  4 +++-
 t/search.t                | 11 +++++++++--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
index 76a270bca0c01e9c6121c530ff405594f04d6114..b3fd532d80db1461b6604a60e08dfe9deeeeb04e 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Search.pm
@@ -330,8 +330,10 @@ 	my $tmp = join(' ', map {;
 		if (s!\b(d|rt|dt):([[:print:]]+)\z!date_parse_prepare(
 						$to_parse //= [], $1, $2)!sge) {
 			$_;
+		} elsif (/\s/) {
+			s/(.*?)\b(\w+:)// ? qq{$1$2"$_"} : qq{"$_"};
 		} else {
-			/\s/ ? (s/\A(\w+:)// ? qq{$1"$_"} : qq{"$_}) : $_
+			$_
 		}
 	} @$argv);
 	# git-rev-parse can handle any number of args up to system
diff --git a/t/search.t b/t/search.t
index 36a8fb3085584a2342248ed29e32ff0bd7eb84f8..bcfe91f5d468e91867116c640f4966f1e9b1667e 100644
--- a/t/search.t
+++ b/t/search.t
@@ -536,13 +536,20 @@ 		'Subject search reaches inside message/rfc822');
 });
 
 SKIP: {
+	my ($s, $g) = ($ibx->search, $ibx->git);
+	my $q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, ["quoted phrase"]);
+	is($q, q["quoted phrase"], 'quoted phrase');
+	$q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, ['s:pa ce']);
+	is($q, q[s:"pa ce"], 'space with prefix');
+	$q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, ["\(s:pa ce", "AND", "foo\)"]);
+	is($q, q[(s:"pa ce" AND foo)], 'space AND foo');
+
 	local $ENV{TZ} = 'UTC';
 	my $now = strftime('%H:%M:%S', gmtime(time));
 	if ($now =~ /\A23:(?:59|60)/ || $now =~ /\A00:00:0[01]\z/) {
 		skip 'too close to midnight, time is tricky', 6;
 	}
-	my ($s, $g) = ($ibx->search, $ibx->git);
-	my $q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, [qw(d:20101002 blah)]);
+	$q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, [qw(d:20101002 blah)]);
 	is($q, 'd:20101002..20101003 blah', 'YYYYMMDD expanded to range');
 	$q = $s->query_argv_to_string($g, [qw(d:2010-10-02)]);
 	is($q, 'd:20101002..20101003', 'YYYY-MM-DD expanded to range');