diff --git a/Lib/_LWPCookieJar.py b/Lib/_LWPCookieJar.py
index 90cc633..a446aeb 100644
--- a/Lib/_LWPCookieJar.py
+++ b/Lib/_LWPCookieJar.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
                        iso2time, time2isoz)
 
 def lwp_cookie_str(cookie):
-    """Return string representation of Cookie in an the LWP cookie file format.
+    """Return string representation of Cookie in the LWP cookie file format.
 
     Actually, the format is extended a bit -- see module docstring.
 
diff --git a/Lib/distutils/dir_util.py b/Lib/distutils/dir_util.py
index e2dc6f4..f90318e 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/dir_util.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/dir_util.py
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@
     """Create all the empty directories under 'base_dir' needed to put 'files'
     there.
 
-    'base_dir' is just the a name of a directory which doesn't necessarily
+    'base_dir' is just the name of a directory which doesn't necessarily
     exist yet; 'files' is a list of filenames to be interpreted relative to
     'base_dir'.  'base_dir' + the directory portion of every file in 'files'
     will be created if it doesn't already exist.  'mode', 'verbose' and
diff --git a/Lib/lib2to3/fixes/fix_exitfunc.py b/Lib/lib2to3/fixes/fix_exitfunc.py
index 89fb3db..3f3fbbf 100644
--- a/Lib/lib2to3/fixes/fix_exitfunc.py
+++ b/Lib/lib2to3/fixes/fix_exitfunc.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
         self.sys_import = None
 
     def transform(self, node, results):
-        # First, find a the sys import. We'll just hope it's global scope.
+        # First, find the sys import. We'll just hope it's global scope.
         if "sys_import" in results:
             if self.sys_import is None:
                 self.sys_import = results["sys_import"]
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
index b74b622..915e989 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
@@ -646,7 +646,7 @@
 
 
 class TestOptionalsRequired(ParserTestCase):
-    """Tests the an optional action that is required"""
+    """Tests an optional action that is required"""
 
     argument_signatures = [
         Sig('-x', type=int, required=True),