diff --git a/tools/shellscripts/pairs2lexc.sh b/tools/shellscripts/pairs2lexc.sh
index 255384c7..411372b4 100755
--- a/tools/shellscripts/pairs2lexc.sh
+++ b/tools/shellscripts/pairs2lexc.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 # Usage: cat pairs.txt | ./pairs2lexc.sh > pairs.lexc
 
-gawk 'BEGIN { output="LEXICON Root\n"; }
+gawk 'BEGIN { FS="\t"; output="LEXICON Root\n"; }
 { output=output sprintf("%s:%s # ;\n", $1, $2);
   while(match($1,"\\+([^\\+]+)",t)!=0)
        { mchars["+"t[1]]++; sub("\\+"t[1],""); }
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@ END { print "Multichar_Symbols";
   for(i in mchars) print i;
   print "";
   print output;
-}'
+}' | sed "s/ \([^#\;]\)/% \\1/g;s/LEXICON% Root/LEXICON Root/g"