diff --git a/src/encoding/xml/xml.go b/src/encoding/xml/xml.go
index a1e63ed30d3..582cfee222b 100644
--- a/src/encoding/xml/xml.go
+++ b/src/encoding/xml/xml.go
@@ -493,8 +493,12 @@ func (d *Decoder) popElement(t *EndElement) bool {
 		d.err = d.syntaxError("element <" + s.name.Local + "> closed by </" + name.Local + ">")
 		return false
 	case s.name.Space != name.Space:
+		ns := name.Space
+		if name.Space == "" {
+			ns = `""`
+		}
 		d.err = d.syntaxError("element <" + s.name.Local + "> in space " + s.name.Space +
-			" closed by </" + name.Local + "> in space " + name.Space)
+			" closed by </" + name.Local + "> in space " + ns)
 		return false
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/encoding/xml/xml_test.go b/src/encoding/xml/xml_test.go
index 2c985f7c70f..c3848c38730 100644
--- a/src/encoding/xml/xml_test.go
+++ b/src/encoding/xml/xml_test.go
@@ -1346,6 +1346,8 @@ func TestParseErrors(t *testing.T) {
 		{withDefaultHeader(`<!- not ok -->`), `invalid sequence <!- not part of <!--`},
 		{withDefaultHeader(`<!-? not ok -->`), `invalid sequence <!- not part of <!--`},
 		{withDefaultHeader(`<![not ok]>`), `invalid <![ sequence`},
+		{withDefaultHeader(`<zzz:foo xmlns:zzz="http://example.com"><bar>baz</bar></foo>`),
+			`element <foo> in space zzz closed by </foo> in space ""`},
 		{withDefaultHeader("\xf1"), `invalid UTF-8`},
 
 		// Header-related errors.
@@ -1379,7 +1381,7 @@ func TestParseErrors(t *testing.T) {
 			continue
 		}
 		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), test.err) {
-			t.Errorf("parse %s: can't find %q error sudbstring\nerror: %q", test.src, test.err, err)
+			t.Errorf("parse %s: can't find %q error substring\nerror: %q", test.src, test.err, err)
 			continue
 		}
 	}