diff --git a/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java b/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
index 5b7d15490fdf..ac2ac2b57ca4 100644
--- a/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
+++ b/tools/cldr/cldr-to-icu/src/main/java/org/unicode/icu/tool/cldrtoicu/ant/ConvertIcuDataTask.java
@@ -473,7 +473,7 @@ public static ConvertIcuDataTask fromXml(String fileName) {
 
             NodeList convertNodes = root.getElementsByTagName("convert");
             if (convertNodes.getLength() != 1) {
-                System.err.println("Only one <convert> element allowed and required");
+                System.err.println("Exactly one <convert> element allowed and required");
                 return null;
             }
             ConvertIcuDataTask converter = new ConvertIcuDataTask();