diff --git a/sklearn/manifold/_locally_linear.py b/sklearn/manifold/_locally_linear.py
index e6967446274ad..7e3f456f7ca57 100644
--- a/sklearn/manifold/_locally_linear.py
+++ b/sklearn/manifold/_locally_linear.py
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ def _locally_linear_embedding(
         )
     if n_neighbors >= N:
         raise ValueError(
-            "Expected n_neighbors <= n_samples,  but n_samples = %d, n_neighbors = %d"
+            "Expected n_neighbors < n_samples, but n_samples = %d, n_neighbors = %d"
             % (N, n_neighbors)
         )