diff --git a/exercises/word-count/canonical-data.json b/exercises/word-count/canonical-data.json
index 2d1bcc4c0e..bf5820620a 100644
--- a/exercises/word-count/canonical-data.json
+++ b/exercises/word-count/canonical-data.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "exercise": "word-count",
-  "version": "1.2.0",
+  "version": "1.3.0",
   "comments": [
     "For each word in the input, count the number of times it appears in the",
     "entire sentence."
@@ -142,6 +142,18 @@
         "multiple": 1,
         "whitespaces": 1
       }
+    },
+    {
+      "description": "alternating word separators not detected as a word",
+      "property": "countWords",
+      "input": {
+        "sentence": ",\n,one,\n ,two \n 'three'"
+      },
+      "expected": {
+        "one": 1,
+        "two": 1,
+        "three": 1
+      }
     }
   ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}