diff --git a/py/makeqstrdata.py b/py/makeqstrdata.py
index 40c50b7b43..721fa83206 100644
--- a/py/makeqstrdata.py
+++ b/py/makeqstrdata.py
@@ -159,7 +159,14 @@ def compute_huffman_coding(translations, qstrs, compression_filename):
         f.write("const uint8_t lengths[] = {{ {} }};\n".format(", ".join(map(str, lengths))))
         f.write("const {} values[] = {{ {} }};\n".format(values_type, ", ".join(str(ord(u)) for u in values)))
         f.write("#define compress_max_length_bits ({})\n".format(max_translation_encoded_length.bit_length()))
-        f.write("const {} ngrams[] = {{ {} }};\n".format(values_type, ", ".join(str(u) for u in ngramdata)))
+        f.write("const {} bigrams[] = {{ {} }};\n".format(values_type, ", ".join(str(u) for u in ngramdata)))
+        if len(ngrams) > 32:
+            bigram_start = 0xe000
+        else:
+            bigram_start = 0x80
+        bigram_end = bigram_start + len(ngrams) - 1 # End is inclusive
+        f.write("#define bigram_start {}\n".format(bigram_start))
+        f.write("#define bigram_end {}\n".format(bigram_end))
     return values, lengths, ngrams
 
 def decompress(encoding_table, encoded, encoded_length_bits):
diff --git a/supervisor/shared/translate.c b/supervisor/shared/translate.c
index 49ee8f143f..0235293bee 100644
--- a/supervisor/shared/translate.c
+++ b/supervisor/shared/translate.c
@@ -47,19 +47,18 @@ STATIC int put_utf8(char *buf, int u) {
     if(u <= 0x7f) {
         *buf = u;
         return 1;
-    } else if(MP_ARRAY_SIZE(ngrams) <= 64 && u <= 0xbf) {
+    } else if(bigram_start <= u && u <= bigram_end) {
         int n = (u - 0x80) * 2;
-        int ret = put_utf8(buf, ngrams[n]);
-        return ret + put_utf8(buf + ret, ngrams[n+1]);
+        // (note that at present, entries in the bigrams table are
+        // guaranteed not to represent bigrams themselves, so this adds
+        // at most 1 level of recursive call
+        int ret = put_utf8(buf, bigrams[n]);
+        return ret + put_utf8(buf + ret, bigrams[n+1]);
     } else if(u <= 0x07ff) {
         *buf++ = 0b11000000 | (u >> 6);
         *buf   = 0b10000000 | (u & 0b00111111);
         return 2;
-    } else if(MP_ARRAY_SIZE(ngrams) > 64 && u >= 0xe000 && u <= 0xf8ff) {
-        int n = (u - 0xe000) * 2;
-        int ret = put_utf8(buf, ngrams[n]);
-        return ret + put_utf8(buf + ret, ngrams[n+1]);
-    } else { // u <= 0xffff)
+    } else { // u <= 0xffff
         *buf++ = 0b11000000 | (u >> 12);
         *buf   = 0b10000000 | ((u >> 6) & 0b00111111);
         *buf   = 0b10000000 | (u & 0b00111111);