diff --git a/macros/core/PGbasicmacros.pl b/macros/core/PGbasicmacros.pl
index bde1d92002..25c70aa50f 100644
--- a/macros/core/PGbasicmacros.pl
+++ b/macros/core/PGbasicmacros.pl
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ sub NAMED_ANS_RULE {
 	$tcol = $tcol < 40 ? $tcol : 40;           ## get min
 
 	MODES(
-		TeX        => "{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
+		TeX        => "\\relax{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
 		Latex2HTML => qq!\\begin{rawhtml}<input type=text size=$col name="$name" value="">\\end{rawhtml}!,
 
 		# Note: codeshard is used in the css to identify input elements that come from pg
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ sub NAMED_HIDDEN_ANS_RULE {
 	$tcol = $tcol < 40 ? $tcol : 40;           ## get min
 
 	MODES(
-		TeX        => "{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
+		TeX        => "\\relax{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
 		Latex2HTML => qq!\\begin{rawhtml}<input type=text name="$name" value="">\\end{rawhtml}!,
 		HTML       => qq!<input type=hidden name="$name" id="$name" value="$answer_value">!
 			. qq!<input type=hidden name="previous_$name" id="previous_$name" value="$answer_value">!,
@@ -413,7 +413,7 @@ sub NAMED_ANS_RULE_EXTENSION {
 	my $tcol = $col / 2 > 3 ? $col / 2 : 3;    ## get max
 	$tcol = $tcol < 40 ? $tcol : 40;           ## get min
 	MODES(
-		TeX        => "{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
+		TeX        => "\\relax{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
 		Latex2HTML =>
 			qq!\\begin{rawhtml}\n<input type=text size=$col name="$name" id="$name" value="">\n\\end{rawhtml}\n!,
 		HTML => qq!<input type=text class="codeshard" size=$col name="$name" id="$name" aria-label="$label" !
@@ -1079,7 +1079,7 @@ sub NAMED_ANS_ARRAY_EXTENSION {
 	$tcol = $tcol < 40 ? $tcol : 40;           ## get min
 
 	MODES(
-		TeX        => "{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
+		TeX        => "\\relax{\\answerRule[$name]{$tcol}}",
 		Latex2HTML =>
 			qq!\\begin{rawhtml}\n<input type=text size=$col name="$name" id="$name" value="">\n\\end{rawhtml}\n!,
 		HTML => qq!<input type=text size=$col name="$name" id="$name" class="codeshard" aria-label="$label" !