diff --git a/Doc/library/concurrent.futures.rst b/Doc/library/concurrent.futures.rst
index cadf841b43537e..7948b1d4920dfd 100644
--- a/Doc/library/concurrent.futures.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/concurrent.futures.rst
@@ -504,10 +504,9 @@ The :class:`Future` class encapsulates the asynchronous execution of a callable.
 
    .. method:: cancel()
 
-      Attempt to cancel the call.  If the call is currently being executed or
-      finished running and cannot be cancelled then the method will return
-      ``False``, otherwise the call will be cancelled and the method will
-      return ``True``.
+      Attempt to cancel the call. Return ``False`` if the call cannot be
+      cancelled because it is already running or has finished. Otherwise, cancel
+      the call and return ``True``.
 
    .. method:: cancelled()