diff --git a/docs/ref/settings.txt b/docs/ref/settings.txt
index 171e442ac3..17d0830353 100644
--- a/docs/ref/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/settings.txt
@@ -1541,8 +1541,9 @@ It serves two purposes:
 
 * If the locale middleware isn't in use, it decides which translation is served
   to all users.
-* If the locale middleware is active, it provides the fallback translation when
-  no translation exist for a given literal to the user's preferred language.
+* If the locale middleware is active, it provides a fallback language in case
+  the user's preferred language can't be determined or is not supported by the
+  Web site.
 
 See :ref:`how-django-discovers-language-preference` for more details.