diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AbstractQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AbstractQueryBuilder.java
index e54b4844412..25d380b09eb 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AbstractQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AbstractQueryBuilder.java
@@ -79,6 +79,19 @@ public abstract class AbstractQueryBuilder<QB extends AbstractQueryBuilder> exte
         return query;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public final Query toFilter(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
+        Query result = null;
+            final boolean originalIsFilter = context.isFilter;
+            try {
+                context.isFilter = true;
+                result = toQuery(context);
+            } finally {
+                context.isFilter = originalIsFilter;
+            }
+        return result;
+    }
+
     //norelease to be made abstract once all query builders override doToQuery providing their own specific implementation.
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
         return context.indexQueryParserService().queryParser(getName()).parse(context);
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
index 05ef359f7ef..477f34d272f 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/AndQueryBuilder.java
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ public class AndQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<AndQueryBuilder> {
 
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder f : filters) {
-            Query innerQuery = f.toQuery(context);
+            Query innerQuery = f.toFilter(context);
             // ignore queries that are null
             if (innerQuery != null) {
                 query.add(innerQuery, Occur.MUST);
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
index 9ce5a396735..32d9c852640 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryBuilder.java
@@ -279,9 +279,23 @@ public class BoolQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<BoolQueryBuilder> {
         return validationException;
     }
 
-    private static void addBooleanClauses(QueryShardContext context, BooleanQuery booleanQuery, List<QueryBuilder> clauses, Occur occurs) throws IOException {
+    private void addBooleanClauses(QueryShardContext context, BooleanQuery booleanQuery, List<QueryBuilder> clauses, Occur occurs) throws IOException {
         for (QueryBuilder query : clauses) {
-            Query luceneQuery = query.toQuery(context);
+            Query luceneQuery = null;
+            switch (occurs) {
+            case SHOULD:
+                if (context.isFilter() && minimumShouldMatch == null) {
+                    minimumShouldMatch = "1";
+                }
+                luceneQuery = query.toQuery(context);
+                break;
+            case FILTER:
+            case MUST_NOT:
+                luceneQuery = query.toFilter(context);
+                break;
+            case MUST:
+                luceneQuery = query.toQuery(context);
+            }
             if (luceneQuery != null) {
                 booleanQuery.add(new BooleanClause(luceneQuery, occurs));
             }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryParser.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryParser.java
index ad919de1f0f..8858c70aaa8 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryParser.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/BoolQueryParser.java
@@ -76,12 +76,6 @@ public class BoolQueryParser extends BaseQueryParser {
                 case "should":
                     query = parseContext.parseInnerQueryBuilder();
                     shouldClauses.add(query);
-                    // EmptyQueryBuilder does not add lucene query later, skip setting minuminShouldMatch
-                    if (query != EmptyQueryBuilder.PROTOTYPE) {
-                        if (parseContext.isFilter() && minimumShouldMatch == null) {
-                            minimumShouldMatch = "1";
-                        }
-                    }
                     break;
                 case "filter":
                     query = parseContext.parseInnerFilterToQueryBuilder();
@@ -105,12 +99,6 @@ public class BoolQueryParser extends BaseQueryParser {
                     case "should":
                         query = parseContext.parseInnerQueryBuilder();
                         shouldClauses.add(query);
-                        // EmptyQueryBuilder does not add lucene query later, skip setting minuminShouldMatch
-                        if (query != EmptyQueryBuilder.PROTOTYPE) {
-                            if (parseContext.isFilter() && minimumShouldMatch == null) {
-                                minimumShouldMatch = "1";
-                            }
-                        }
                         break;
                     case "filter":
                         query = parseContext.parseInnerFilterToQueryBuilder();
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
index 9648db8cd7f..99a7a31627f 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/ConstantScoreQueryBuilder.java
@@ -68,12 +68,12 @@ public class ConstantScoreQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<ConstantScor
 
     @Override
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
-        Query innerFilter = filterBuilder.toQuery(context);
+        Query innerFilter = filterBuilder.toFilter(context);
         if (innerFilter == null ) {
             // return null so that parent queries (e.g. bool) also ignore this
             return null;
         }
-        return new ConstantScoreQuery(filterBuilder.toQuery(context));
+        return new ConstantScoreQuery(innerFilter);
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/EmptyQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/EmptyQueryBuilder.java
index de5d5bb400b..c59d8d32c96 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/EmptyQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/EmptyQueryBuilder.java
@@ -72,6 +72,13 @@ public class EmptyQueryBuilder extends ToXContentToBytes implements QueryBuilder
         return null;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public Query toFilter(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
+        // empty
+        return null;
+    }
+
+
     @Override
     public QueryValidationException validate() {
         // nothing to validate
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FQueryFilterBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FQueryFilterBuilder.java
index 40511c48c73..85fdad15da8 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FQueryFilterBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FQueryFilterBuilder.java
@@ -70,7 +70,6 @@ public class FQueryFilterBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<FQueryFilterBuilde
 
     @Override
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
-        // inner query builder can potentially be `null`, in that case we ignore it
         Query innerQuery = this.queryBuilder.toQuery(context);
         if (innerQuery == null) {
             return null;
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FilteredQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FilteredQueryBuilder.java
index b36e5411dd7..be4ee1d8fd4 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FilteredQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FilteredQueryBuilder.java
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ public class FilteredQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<FilteredQueryBuil
     @Override
     public Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws QueryShardException, IOException {
         Query query = queryBuilder.toQuery(context);
-        Query filter = filterBuilder.toQuery(context);
+        Query filter = filterBuilder.toFilter(context);
 
         if (query == null) {
             // Most likely this query was generated from the JSON query DSL - it parsed to an EmptyQueryBuilder so we ignore
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FuzzyQueryParser.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FuzzyQueryParser.java
index ec757fdf20c..81ad71c5558 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FuzzyQueryParser.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/FuzzyQueryParser.java
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ public class FuzzyQueryParser extends BaseQueryParserTemp {
         boolean transpositions = FuzzyQuery.defaultTranspositions;
         String queryName = null;
         MultiTermQuery.RewriteMethod rewriteMethod = null;
-        if (parseContext.isFilter()) {
+        if (context.isFilter()) {
             rewriteMethod = MultiTermQuery.CONSTANT_SCORE_REWRITE;
         }
         token = parser.nextToken();
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NotQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NotQueryBuilder.java
index 70aec44747a..178f74baa81 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NotQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/NotQueryBuilder.java
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ public class NotQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<NotQueryBuilder> {
 
     @Override
     protected Query doToQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException {
-        Query luceneQuery = filter.toQuery(context);
+        Query luceneQuery = filter.toFilter(context);
         if (luceneQuery == null) {
             return null;
         }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
index 84452f64ccb..03951102eb5 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/OrQueryBuilder.java
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ public class OrQueryBuilder extends AbstractQueryBuilder<OrQueryBuilder> {
 
         BooleanQuery query = new BooleanQuery();
         for (QueryBuilder f : filters) {
-            Query innerQuery = f.toQuery(context);
+            Query innerQuery = f.toFilter(context);
             // ignore queries that are null
             if (innerQuery != null) {
                 query.add(innerQuery, Occur.SHOULD);
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryBuilder.java
index 02bbfb68f1b..3f693756f59 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryBuilder.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import java.io.IOException;
 
 public interface QueryBuilder<QB extends QueryBuilder> extends NamedWriteable<QB>, ToXContent {
-    
+
     /**
      * Validate the query.
      * @return a {@link QueryValidationException} containing error messages, {@code null} if query is valid.
@@ -49,6 +49,18 @@ public interface QueryBuilder<QB extends QueryBuilder> extends NamedWriteable<QB
      */
     Query toQuery(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException;
 
+    /**
+     * Converts this QueryBuilder to an unscored lucene {@link Query} that acts as a filter.
+     * Returns <tt>null</tt> if this query should be ignored in the context of
+     * parent queries.
+     *
+     * @param context additional information needed to construct the queries
+     * @return the {@link Query} or <tt>null</tt> if this query should be ignored upstream
+     * @throws QueryShardException
+     * @throws IOException
+     */
+    Query toFilter(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException;
+
     /**
      * Returns a {@link org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference}
      * containing the {@link ToXContent} output in binary format.
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
index de108778d7d..90b45e335c1 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryParseContext.java
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ public class QueryParseContext {
     private XContentParser parser;
     private final Index index;
     //norelease this flag is also used in the QueryShardContext, we need to make sure we set it there correctly in doToQuery()
-    private boolean isFilter;
     private ParseFieldMatcher parseFieldMatcher;
 
     //norelease this can eventually be deleted when context() method goes away
@@ -172,34 +171,32 @@ public class QueryParseContext {
      * @throws IOException
      */
     @Nullable
+    //norelease setting and checking the isFilter Flag should completely be moved to toQuery/toFilter after query refactoring
     public QueryBuilder parseInnerFilterToQueryBuilder() throws IOException {
-        final boolean originalIsFilter = isFilter;
+        final boolean originalIsFilter = this.shardContext.isFilter;
         try {
-            isFilter = true;
+            this.shardContext.isFilter = true;
             return parseInnerQueryBuilder();
         } finally {
-            isFilter = originalIsFilter;
+            this.shardContext.isFilter = originalIsFilter;
         }
     }
 
+    //norelease setting and checking the isFilter Flag should completely be moved to toQuery/toFilter after query refactoring
     QueryBuilder parseInnerFilterToQueryBuilder(String queryName) throws IOException, QueryParsingException {
-        final boolean originalIsFilter = isFilter;
+        final boolean originalIsFilter = this.shardContext.isFilter;
         try {
-            isFilter = true;
+            this.shardContext.isFilter = true;
             QueryParser queryParser = queryParser(queryName);
             if (queryParser == null) {
                 throw new QueryParsingException(this, "No query registered for [" + queryName + "]");
             }
             return queryParser.fromXContent(this);
         } finally {
-            isFilter = originalIsFilter;
+            this.shardContext.isFilter = originalIsFilter;
         }
     }
 
-    public boolean isFilter() {
-        return this.isFilter;
-    }
-
     public ParseFieldMatcher parseFieldMatcher() {
         return parseFieldMatcher;
     }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
index 773fbcb7f86..a55d545d919 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/QueryShardContext.java
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ public class QueryShardContext {
     //norelease this should be possible to remove once query context are completely separated
     private QueryParseContext parseContext;
 
-    private boolean isFilter;
+    boolean isFilter;
 
     public QueryShardContext(Index index, IndexQueryParserService indexQueryParser) {
         this.index = index;
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/TermsQueryParser.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/TermsQueryParser.java
index fec398f298e..0bbbef8f670 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/TermsQueryParser.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/TermsQueryParser.java
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ public class TermsQueryParser extends BaseQueryParserTemp {
         }
 
         Query query;
-        if (parseContext.isFilter()) {
+        if (context.isFilter()) {
             if (fieldType != null) {
                 query = fieldType.termsQuery(terms, context);
             } else {
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/plugin/DummyQueryParserPlugin.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/plugin/DummyQueryParserPlugin.java
index 7421a114d21..d8b7fc97db1 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/plugin/DummyQueryParserPlugin.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/query/plugin/DummyQueryParserPlugin.java
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ public class DummyQueryParserPlugin extends AbstractPlugin {
         public Query parse(QueryShardContext context) throws IOException, QueryShardException {
             XContentParser.Token token = context.parseContext().parser().nextToken();
             assert token == XContentParser.Token.END_OBJECT;
-            return new DummyQuery(context.parseContext().isFilter());
+            return new DummyQuery(context.isFilter());
         }
 
         @Override