diff --git a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector.rb b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector.rb
index c5c1a58c60f..67d852317fa 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector.rb
+++ b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/lib/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector.rb
@@ -222,9 +222,15 @@ module DiscourseNarrativeBot
       end
     end
 
+    @@cooked_triggers = {}
+
+    def cook(trigger)
+      @@cooked_triggers[trigger] ||= PrettyText.cook("@#{self.discobot_username} #{trigger}")
+    end
+
     def match_trigger?(trigger)
       # we remove the leading <p> to allow for trigger to be at the end of a paragraph
-      cooked_trigger = PrettyText.cook("@#{self.discobot_username} #{trigger}")[3..-1]
+      cooked_trigger = cook(trigger)[3..-1]
       regexp = Regexp.new(cooked_trigger, 'i')
       match = @post.cooked.match(regexp)
 
diff --git a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/spec/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector_spec.rb b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/spec/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector_spec.rb
index f60aad254d5..d703ab7e126 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/spec/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector_spec.rb
+++ b/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot/spec/discourse_narrative_bot/track_selector_spec.rb
@@ -416,6 +416,15 @@ describe DiscourseNarrativeBot::TrackSelector do
             expect(new_post.raw).to eq(random_mention_reply)
           end
 
+          it 'works with french locale' do
+            I18n.with_locale("fr") do
+              post.update!(raw: "@discobot afficher l'aide")
+              described_class.new(:reply, user, post_id: post.id).select
+              # gsub'ing to ensure non-breaking whitespaces matches regular whitespaces
+              expect(Post.last.raw.gsub(/[[:space:]]+/, " ")).to eq(help_message.gsub(/[[:space:]]+/, " "))
+            end
+          end
+
           it 'should not rate limit help message' do
             post.update!(raw: '@discobot')
             other_post = Fabricate(:post, raw: 'discobot', topic: post.topic)