diff --git a/R-package/R/utils.R b/R-package/R/utils.R
index 718509f2fe35..7373386f7bcc 100644
--- a/R-package/R/utils.R
+++ b/R-package/R/utils.R
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ lgb.check.obj <- function(params, obj) {
 
 # [description]
 #     make sure that "metric" is populated on params,
-#     and add any eval values to itt
+#     and add any eval values to it
 # [return]
 #     params, where "metric" is a list
 lgb.check.eval <- function(params, eval) {
diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_utils.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
index 4c87fa96527a..af440118f936 100644
--- a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_utils.R
@@ -98,15 +98,6 @@ test_that("lgb.check.eval adds eval to metric in params", {
     expect_identical(params[["metric"]], list("auc", "binary_error"))
 })
 
-test_that("lgb.check.eval adds eval to metric in params", {
-    params <- lgb.check.eval(
-        params = list(metric = "auc")
-        , eval = "binary_error"
-    )
-    expect_named(params, "metric")
-    expect_identical(params[["metric"]], list("auc", "binary_error"))
-})
-
 test_that("lgb.check.eval adds eval to metric in params if two evaluation names are provided", {
     params <- lgb.check.eval(
         params = list(metric = "auc")