diff --git a/include/wx/intl.h b/include/wx/intl.h
index 34072e0dbd..aec71543fb 100644
--- a/include/wx/intl.h
+++ b/include/wx/intl.h
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 
 // another one which just marks the strings for extraction, but doesn't
 // perform the translation (use -kwxTRANSLATE with xgettext!)
-#define wxTRANSLATE(str) (str)
+#define wxTRANSLATE(str) wxT(str)
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // forward decls