diff --git a/question/type/multichoice/question.php b/question/type/multichoice/question.php
index afca6a47740..8dd70861160 100644
--- a/question/type/multichoice/question.php
+++ b/question/type/multichoice/question.php
@@ -126,10 +126,10 @@ abstract class qtype_multichoice_base extends question_graded_automatically {
     }
 
     public function make_html_inline($html) {
-        $html = preg_replace('~\s*<p>\s*~', '', $html);
-        $html = preg_replace('~\s*</p>\s*~', '<br />', $html);
-        $html = preg_replace('~<br />$~', '', $html);
-        return $html;
+        $html = preg_replace('~\s*<p>\s*~u', '', $html);
+        $html = preg_replace('~\s*</p>\s*~u', '<br />', $html);
+        $html = preg_replace('~(<br\s*/?>)+$~u', '', $html);
+        return trim($html);
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/question/type/multichoice/tests/question_test.php b/question/type/multichoice/tests/question_test.php
index fe5ba514efe..cbd3827f5ea 100644
--- a/question/type/multichoice/tests/question_test.php
+++ b/question/type/multichoice/tests/question_test.php
@@ -147,6 +147,8 @@ class qtype_multichoice_single_question_test extends advanced_testcase {
         $this->assertEquals("Frog<br />XXX <img src='http://example.com/pic.png' alt='Graph' />",
                 $mc->make_html_inline(" <p> Frog </p> \n\r
                     <p> XXX <img src='http://example.com/pic.png' alt='Graph' /> </p> "));
+        $this->assertEquals('Frog', $mc->make_html_inline('<p>Frog</p><p></p>'));
+        $this->assertEquals('Frog<br />†', $mc->make_html_inline('<p>Frog</p><p>†</p>'));
     }
 }