diff --git a/mitterlib/ui/helpers/timesince.py b/mitterlib/ui/helpers/timesince.py
index 013296a..829e017 100644
--- a/mitterlib/ui/helpers/timesince.py
+++ b/mitterlib/ui/helpers/timesince.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ def timesince(timestamp):
     if since <= 0:
         return _('just now')
 
-    result = []
+    result = None
     for (seconds, name) in chunks:
         part = since / seconds
         if part < 1:
@@ -65,13 +65,11 @@ def timesince(timestamp):
 
         # all divs in Python 2.x are integers; we'll have to check this again
         # when we change to Python 3.
+        elapsed = '%s %s' % (part, name(part))
+        result = _('%s ago') % (elapsed)
+        break
 
-        result.append('%s %s' % (part, name(part)))
-        since -= (seconds * part)
+    if not result:
+        result = _('less than a minute ago')
 
-    # since now only have seconds (which are out of our "chunks")
-    seconds = N_('second', 'seconds', since)
-    result.append('%d %s' % (since, seconds))
-
-    whole_message = ', '.join(result)
-    return _('%s ago') % (whole_message)
+    return result