diff --git a/data/core/tokenizer.lua b/data/core/tokenizer.lua
index fe74ca6d..5f70fa20 100644
--- a/data/core/tokenizer.lua
+++ b/data/core/tokenizer.lua
@@ -133,12 +133,12 @@ function tokenizer.tokenize(incoming_syntax, text, state, resume)
   local res
   local i = 1
 
-  if #incoming_syntax.patterns == 0 then
-    return { "normal", text }
-  end
-
   state = state or string.char(0)
 
+  if #incoming_syntax.patterns == 0 then
+    return { "normal", text }, state
+  end
+
   if resume then
     res = resume.res
     -- Remove "incomplete" tokens