import string


def words_preprocess(phrase):
    """ preprocess a sentence: lowercase, clean up weird chars, remove punctuation """
    translator = str.maketrans('', '', string.punctuation)
    replacements = {
        u'½': u'half',
        u'—': u'-',
        u'™': u'',
        u'¢': u'cent',
        u'ç': u'c',
        u'û': u'u',
        u'é': u'e',
        u'°': u' degree',
        u'è': u'e',
        u'…': u'',
    }

    for k, v in replacements.items():
        phrase = phrase.replace(k, v)
    return str(phrase).lower().translate(translator).split()