diff --git a/src/jdk.zipfs/share/classes/jdk/nio/zipfs/ZipFileSystem.java b/src/jdk.zipfs/share/classes/jdk/nio/zipfs/ZipFileSystem.java
index 273fff49eeec8..171bd9ac5b20e 100644
--- a/src/jdk.zipfs/share/classes/jdk/nio/zipfs/ZipFileSystem.java
+++ b/src/jdk.zipfs/share/classes/jdk/nio/zipfs/ZipFileSystem.java
@@ -1912,7 +1912,7 @@ public void deleteFile(byte[] path, boolean failIfNotExists)
         IndexNode inode = getInode(path);
         if (inode == null) {
             if (path != null && path.length == 0)
-                throw new ZipException("root directory </> can't not be delete");
+                throw new ZipException("root directory </> cannot be deleted");
             if (failIfNotExists)
                 throw new NoSuchFileException(getString(path));
         } else {