diff --git a/src/selectors.hh b/src/selectors.hh
index 74f0d198..462b188f 100644
--- a/src/selectors.hh
+++ b/src/selectors.hh
@@ -149,8 +149,9 @@ Selection select_word(const Buffer& buffer, const Selection& selection,
 {
     Utf8Iterator first{buffer.iterator_at(selection.cursor()), buffer};
     if (not is_word<word_type>(*first) and
-        not skip_while(first, buffer.end(), [](Codepoint c)
-                       { return not is_word<word_type>(c); }))
+        ((flags & ObjectFlags::Inner) or
+         not skip_while(first, buffer.end(), [](Codepoint c)
+                        { return not is_word<word_type>(c); })))
         return selection;
 
     Utf8Iterator last = first;