diff --git a/spacy/vocab.pyx b/spacy/vocab.pyx
index 6e98fb7d5..75a7844e1 100644
--- a/spacy/vocab.pyx
+++ b/spacy/vocab.pyx
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ cdef class Vocab:
         '''Get a pointer to a LexemeC from the lexicon, creating a new Lexeme
         if necessary, using memory acquired from the given pool.  If the pool
         is the lexicon's own memory, the lexeme is saved in the lexicon.'''
-        if string == u'':
+        if orth == 0:
             return &EMPTY_LEXEME
         cdef LexemeC* lex
         lex = <LexemeC*>self._by_orth.get(orth)