diff --git a/nmt/train.py b/nmt/train.py
index 21f11b8d6..691bcd9bb 100644
--- a/nmt/train.py
+++ b/nmt/train.py
@@ -447,8 +447,8 @@ def _sample_decode(model, global_step, sess, hparams, iterator, src_data,
       sent_id=0,
       tgt_eos=hparams.eos,
       subword_option=hparams.subword_option)
-  utils.print_out("    src: %s" % src_data[decode_id])
-  utils.print_out("    ref: %s" % tgt_data[decode_id])
+  utils.print_out(b"    src: " + utils.format_sentence(src_data[decode_id], hparams.subword_option))
+  utils.print_out(b"    ref: " + utils.format_sentence(tgt_data[decode_id], hparams.subword_option))
   utils.print_out(b"    nmt: " + translation)
 
   # Summary
diff --git a/nmt/utils/misc_utils.py b/nmt/utils/misc_utils.py
index a680a5cf2..5fabc7ec4 100644
--- a/nmt/utils/misc_utils.py
+++ b/nmt/utils/misc_utils.py
@@ -164,8 +164,6 @@ def format_bpe_text(symbols, delimiter=b"@@"):
   """Convert a sequence of bpe words into sentence."""
   words = []
   word = b""
-  if isinstance(symbols, str):
-    symbols = symbols.encode()
   delimiter_len = len(delimiter)
   for symbol in symbols:
     if len(symbol) >= delimiter_len and symbol[-delimiter_len:] == delimiter:
@@ -181,3 +179,17 @@ def format_spm_text(symbols):
   """Decode a text in SPM (https://github.com/google/sentencepiece) format."""
   return u"".join(format_text(symbols).decode("utf-8").split()).replace(
       u"\u2581", u" ").strip().encode("utf-8")
+
+def format_sentence(sentence, subword_option):
+  """Decode sentence using subword option"""
+  if isinstance(sentence, str):
+    sentence = sentence.encode("utf-8").split(b' ')
+
+  if subword_option == "bpe":  # BPE
+    sentence = format_bpe_text(sentence)
+  elif subword_option == "spm":  # SPM
+    sentence = format_spm_text(sentence)
+  else:
+    sentence = format_text(sentence)
+
+  return sentence
diff --git a/nmt/utils/nmt_utils.py b/nmt/utils/nmt_utils.py
index 72f71b5c2..f912f8e08 100644
--- a/nmt/utils/nmt_utils.py
+++ b/nmt/utils/nmt_utils.py
@@ -99,11 +99,4 @@ def get_translation(nmt_outputs, sent_id, tgt_eos, subword_option):
   if tgt_eos and tgt_eos in output:
     output = output[:output.index(tgt_eos)]
 
-  if subword_option == "bpe":  # BPE
-    translation = utils.format_bpe_text(output)
-  elif subword_option == "spm":  # SPM
-    translation = utils.format_spm_text(output)
-  else:
-    translation = utils.format_text(output)
-
-  return translation
+  return utils.format_sentence(output, subword_option)