diff --git a/doc/developers/utilities.rst b/doc/developers/utilities.rst
index 7ff6c330da1290af2fcc49dca9d1e1ea5f191475..d7f5331ebca21a0b42330285958122433e678793 100644
--- a/doc/developers/utilities.rst
+++ b/doc/developers/utilities.rst
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ Helper Functions
   a 1-d numpy.ndarray.  Currently used in
   ``sklearn.datasets._svmlight_format.pyx``.
 
-- :func:`safe_mask`: Help function to convert a mask to the format expected
+- :func:`safe_mask`: Helper function to convert a mask to the format expected
   by the numpy array or scipy sparse matrix on which to use it (sparse
   matrices support integer indices only while numpy arrays support both
   boolean masks and integer indices).
diff --git a/sklearn/utils/__init__.py b/sklearn/utils/__init__.py
index 8499e1b9abb5365a01b3f3fd008794c65cb65270..7d4abe38a46753f3572fd0e07f360821e162ae81 100644
--- a/sklearn/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/sklearn/utils/__init__.py
@@ -84,12 +84,12 @@ class deprecated(object):
 
 
 def safe_mask(X, mask):
-    """Return a mask which is safe for X.
+    """Return a mask which is safe to use on X.
 
     Parameters
     ----------
         X : {array-like, sparse matrix}
-            Data on which to apply X.
+            Data on which to apply mask.
 
         mask: array
             Mask to be used on X.