diff --git a/helpers/content.go b/helpers/content.go
index fe5f26e54..78b4f8e91 100644
--- a/helpers/content.go
+++ b/helpers/content.go
@@ -271,10 +271,11 @@ func TruncateWords(s string, max int) string {
 }
 
 // TruncateWordsToWholeSentence takes content and an int
-// and returns entire sentences from content, delimited by the int.
-func TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(words []string, max int) string {
-	if max > len(words) {
-		return strings.Join(words, " ")
+// and returns entire sentences from content, delimited by the int
+// and whether it's truncated or not.
+func TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(words []string, max int) (string, bool) {
+	if max >= len(words) {
+		return strings.Join(words, " "), false
 	}
 
 	for counter, word := range words[max:] {
@@ -282,11 +283,12 @@ func TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(words []string, max int) string {
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, "?") ||
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, ".\"") ||
 			strings.HasSuffix(word, "!") {
-			return strings.Join(words[:max+counter+1], " ")
+			upper := max + counter + 1
+			return strings.Join(words[:upper], " "), (upper < len(words))
 		}
 	}
 
-	return strings.Join(words[:max], " ")
+	return strings.Join(words[:max], " "), true
 }
 
 // GetRstContent calls the Python script rst2html as an external helper
diff --git a/helpers/content_test.go b/helpers/content_test.go
index 6191eb158..44cee2f50 100644
--- a/helpers/content_test.go
+++ b/helpers/content_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package helpers
 import (
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"html/template"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 )
 
@@ -33,3 +34,30 @@ func TestStripEmptyNav(t *testing.T) {
 func TestBytesToHTML(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, template.HTML("dobedobedo"), BytesToHTML([]byte("dobedobedo")))
 }
+
+func TestTruncateWordsToWholeSentence(t *testing.T) {
+	type test struct {
+		input, expected string
+		max             int
+		truncated       bool
+	}
+	data := []test{
+		{"a b c", "a b c", 12, false},
+		{"a b c", "a b c", 3, false},
+		{"a", "a", 1, false},
+		{"This is a sentence.", "This is a sentence.", 5, false},
+		{"This is also a sentence!", "This is also a sentence!", 1, false},
+		{"To be. Or not to be. That's the question.", "To be.", 1, true},
+		{" \nThis is not a sentence\n ", "This is not a", 4, true},
+	}
+	for i, d := range data {
+		output, truncated := TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(strings.Fields(d.input), d.max)
+		if d.expected != output {
+			t.Errorf("Test %d failed. Expected %q got %q", i, d.expected, output)
+		}
+
+		if d.truncated != truncated {
+			t.Errorf("Test %d failed. Expected truncated=%t got %t", i, d.truncated, truncated)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/hugolib/page.go b/hugolib/page.go
index ddb1bfb2c..7b3e67a69 100644
--- a/hugolib/page.go
+++ b/hugolib/page.go
@@ -190,10 +190,9 @@ func (p *Page) setSummary() {
 	} else {
 		// If hugo defines split:
 		// render, strip html, then split
-		p.Summary = helpers.BytesToHTML([]byte(helpers.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(p.PlainWords(), helpers.SummaryLength)))
-
-		// todo bep - check if the Plain() can be trimmed earlier
-		p.Truncated = len(p.Summary) != len(strings.Trim(p.Plain(), "\n\r "))
+		summary, truncated := helpers.TruncateWordsToWholeSentence(p.PlainWords(), helpers.SummaryLength)
+		p.Summary = helpers.BytesToHTML([]byte(summary))
+		p.Truncated = truncated
 
 	}
 }