diff --git a/i18n/execute.py b/i18n/execute.py
index e386ea5c87..e7c2465338 100644
--- a/i18n/execute.py
+++ b/i18n/execute.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def call(command, working_directory=BASE_DIR):
 
     """
     LOG.info(command)
-    p = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, cwd=working_directory)
+    p = subprocess.Popen(command, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, cwd=working_directory, shell=True)
     out, err = p.communicate()
     return (out, err)
 
diff --git a/i18n/validate.py b/i18n/validate.py
index c9ea20a5d6..967a9eab82 100644
--- a/i18n/validate.py
+++ b/i18n/validate.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ def msgfmt_check_po_file(filename):
     """
     # Use relative paths to make output less noisy.
     rfile = os.path.relpath(filename, LOCALE_DIR)
-    out, err = call(['msgfmt', '-c', rfile], working_directory=LOCALE_DIR)
+    out, err = call('msgfmt -c {}'.format(rfile), working_directory=LOCALE_DIR)
     if err != '':
         log.info('\n' + out)
         log.warn('\n' + err)