diff --git a/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/TranslationProvider.java b/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/TranslationProvider.java
index 986fcf34d..d54be4da3 100644
--- a/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/TranslationProvider.java
+++ b/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/TranslationProvider.java
@@ -165,7 +165,21 @@ public class TranslationProvider {
 		if (parameters.length == 0) {
 			return textString;
 		} else {
-			return MessageFormat.format(textString.replaceAll("''", "'").replaceAll("'", "''"), parameters);
+			return MessageFormat.format(TranslationProvider.preprocessForFormating(textString), parameters);
+		}
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * This method should prepare the inputText for MessageFormat.format method. At the moment it is replacing single
+	 * apostrophe with double, it might be extented in the future with some additional preprocessing.
+	 * @param inputText - string which should be preprocessed
+	 * @return preprocessed input string, i.e. string with replaced single apostrophe with double
+	 */
+	public static String preprocessForFormating(String inputText){
+		if (inputText != null) {
+			return inputText.replace("''", "'").replace("'", "''");
+		} else {
+			return "";
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/freemarker/I18nStringTemplateModel.java b/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/freemarker/I18nStringTemplateModel.java
index 1cf3d310b..2980e1f0f 100644
--- a/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/freemarker/I18nStringTemplateModel.java
+++ b/api/src/main/java/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/i18n/freemarker/I18nStringTemplateModel.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.i18n.freemarker;
 import java.text.MessageFormat;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.i18n.TranslationProvider;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@ public class I18nStringTemplateModel implements TemplateMethodModelEx,
 				if(isOnlineTranslationsEnabled()) {
 					return getOnlineTranslationsFormattedMessage(textString, unwrappedArgs);
 				} else {
-					return MessageFormat.format(textString.replaceAll("''", "'").replaceAll("'", "''"), unwrappedArgs);
+					return MessageFormat.format(TranslationProvider.preprocessForFormating(textString), unwrappedArgs);
 				}
 			} catch (Exception e) {
 				String message = "Can't format '" + key + "', wrong argument types: " + args
@@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ public class I18nStringTemplateModel implements TemplateMethodModelEx,
 	private String getOnlineTranslationsFormattedMessage(String preProcessed, Object[] args) {
 		String[] parts = preProcessed.split(I18nBundle.INT_SEP);
 		final int messageIndex = parts.length -1;
-		String message = MessageFormat.format(parts[messageIndex].replaceAll("''", "'").replaceAll("'", "''"), args);
+		String message = MessageFormat.format(TranslationProvider.preprocessForFormating(parts[messageIndex]), args);
 		String[] arguments = convertToArrayOfStrings(args);
 		parts[messageIndex] = "";
 		String result = String.join(I18nBundle.INT_SEP, parts) +