diff --git a/runtime/utf.h b/runtime/utf.h
index 3ee07fe..dd38afa 100644
--- a/runtime/utf.h
+++ b/runtime/utf.h
@@ -85,12 +85,16 @@
 size_t ComputeModifiedUtf8Hash(const char* chars);
 
 /*
- * Retrieve the next UTF-16 character from a UTF-8 string.
+ * Retrieve the next UTF-16 character or surrogate pair from a UTF-8 string.
+ * single byte, 2-byte and 3-byte UTF-8 sequences result in a single UTF-16
+ * character whereas 4-byte UTF-8 sequences result in a surrogate pair. Use
+ * GetLeadingUtf16Char and GetTrailingUtf16Char to process the return value
+ * of this function.
  *
  * Advances "*utf8_data_in" to the start of the next character.
  *
  * WARNING: If a string is corrupted by dropping a '\0' in the middle
- * of a 3-byte sequence, you can end up overrunning the buffer with
+ * of a multi byte sequence, you can end up overrunning the buffer with
  * reads (and possibly with the writes if the length was computed and
  * cached before the damage). For performance reasons, this function
  * assumes that the string being parsed is known to be valid (e.g., by
@@ -98,7 +102,19 @@
  * out of dex files or other internal translations, so the only real
  * risk comes from the JNI NewStringUTF call.
  */
-uint16_t GetUtf16FromUtf8(const char** utf8_data_in);
+uint32_t GetUtf16FromUtf8(const char** utf8_data_in);
+
+/**
+ * Gets the leading UTF-16 character from a surrogate pair, or the sole
+ * UTF-16 character from the return value of GetUtf16FromUtf8.
+ */
+ALWAYS_INLINE uint16_t GetLeadingUtf16Char(uint32_t maybe_pair);
+
+/**
+ * Gets the trailing UTF-16 character from a surrogate pair, or 0 otherwise
+ * from the return value of GetUtf16FromUtf8.
+ */
+ALWAYS_INLINE uint16_t GetTrailingUtf16Char(uint32_t maybe_pair);
 
 }  // namespace art