diff --git a/src/Benchmarks/Benchmarks.csproj b/src/Benchmarks/Benchmarks.csproj
index dfc4697f4..bcf7843ad 100644
--- a/src/Benchmarks/Benchmarks.csproj
+++ b/src/Benchmarks/Benchmarks.csproj
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
     <ItemGroup>
       <PackageReference Include="BenchmarkDotNet" Version="0.13.12" />
       <ProjectReference Include="..\Humanizer\Humanizer.csproj" />
+<!--      <PackageReference Include="Humanizer" Version="2.14.1" />-->
     </ItemGroup>
 
 </Project>
diff --git a/src/Benchmarks/EnglishArticleBenchmarks.cs b/src/Benchmarks/EnglishArticleBenchmarks.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..219161cfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Benchmarks/EnglishArticleBenchmarks.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+[MemoryDiagnoser(false)]
+public class EnglishArticleBenchmarks
+{
+    [Benchmark]
+    public string[] AppendArticlePrefix() =>
+        EnglishArticle.AppendArticlePrefix([ "Ant", "The Theater", "The apple", "Fox", "Bear"]);
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Benchmarks/Program.cs b/src/Benchmarks/Program.cs
index 8765747d0..d2ced67d3 100644
--- a/src/Benchmarks/Program.cs
+++ b/src/Benchmarks/Program.cs
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-BenchmarkRunner.Run<EnumBenchmarks>();
\ No newline at end of file
+BenchmarkRunner.Run(
+    typeof(Program).Assembly);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Humanizer.Tests.Shared/ArticlePrefixSortTests.cs b/src/Humanizer.Tests.Shared/ArticlePrefixSortTests.cs
index a37fc8e3a..ffb973e4a 100644
--- a/src/Humanizer.Tests.Shared/ArticlePrefixSortTests.cs
+++ b/src/Humanizer.Tests.Shared/ArticlePrefixSortTests.cs
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ public class ArticlePrefixSortTests
         [InlineData(new[] { "Ant", "The Theater", "The apple", "Fox", "Bear" }, new[] { "Ant", "The apple", "Bear", "Fox", "The Theater" })]
         [InlineData(new[] { "An Ant", "The Theater", "the apple", "a Fox", "Bear" }, new[] { "An Ant", "the apple", "Bear", "a Fox", "The Theater" })]
         [InlineData(new[] { "Ant", "A Theater", "an apple", "Fox", "Bear" }, new[] { "Ant", "an apple", "Bear", "Fox", "A Theater" })]
+        [InlineData(new[] { " Ant ", " A  Theater ", "  an apple  ", " Fox", "Bear " }, new[] { "A  Theater", "an apple", "Ant", "Bear", "Fox" })]
         public void SortStringArrayIgnoringArticlePrefixes(string[] input, string[] expectedOutput) =>
             Assert.Equal(expectedOutput, EnglishArticle.PrependArticleSuffix(EnglishArticle.AppendArticlePrefix(input)));
 
diff --git a/src/Humanizer/ArticlePrefixSort.cs b/src/Humanizer/ArticlePrefixSort.cs
index 5077e1e20..e92fd8e33 100644
--- a/src/Humanizer/ArticlePrefixSort.cs
+++ b/src/Humanizer/ArticlePrefixSort.cs
@@ -22,17 +22,17 @@ public static string[] AppendArticlePrefix(string[] items)
 
             for (var i = 0; i < items.Length; i++)
             {
-                var item = items[i];
+                var item = items[i].AsSpan();
                 if (_regex.IsMatch(item))
                 {
-                    var article = item.Substring(0, item.IndexOf(" ", StringComparison.CurrentCulture));
-                    var removed = item.Remove(0, item.IndexOf(" ", StringComparison.CurrentCulture));
-                    var appended = $"{removed} {article}";
-                    transformed[i] = appended.Trim();
+                    var indexOf = item.IndexOf(' ');
+                    var removed = item[indexOf..].TrimStart();
+                    var article = item[..indexOf].TrimEnd();
+                    transformed[i] = $"{removed} {article}";
                 }
                 else
                 {
-                    transformed[i] = item.Trim();
+                    transformed[i] = item.Trim().ToString();
                 }
             }
             Array.Sort(transformed);