diff --git a/misc.go b/misc.go
index 20443a7..5028a80 100644
--- a/misc.go
+++ b/misc.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"slices"
-	"unicode"
 )
 
 var whitespaceChars = []rune{' ', '\t', '\n'}
@@ -33,8 +32,10 @@ func isWordBoundary(str []rune, idx int) bool {
 	return wbounded
 }
 
-func isAlphaNum(c rune) bool {
-	return unicode.IsLetter(c) || unicode.IsNumber(c)
+func isNormalChar(c rune) bool {
+	specialChars := []rune(`?*\^${}()+|[].~`)
+	specialChars = append(specialChars, LBRACKET, RBRACKET)
+	return !slices.Contains(specialChars, c)
 }
 
 func assert(cond bool) {