diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index a734baf28464b..4ce9cc5804264 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -708,8 +708,8 @@ def to_dict(self, orient='dict'):
         elif orient.lower().startswith('r'):
             return [dict((k, v) for k, v in zip(self.columns, row))
                     for row in self.values]
-        else:  # pragma: no cover
-            raise ValueError("outtype %s not understood" % outtype)
+        else:
+            raise ValueError("orient '%s' not understood" % orient)
 
     def to_gbq(self, destination_table, project_id=None, chunksize=10000,
                verbose=True, reauth=False):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
index d46a219f3b1eb..e8ba97ca4f346 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_frame.py
@@ -4158,6 +4158,10 @@ def test_to_dict(self):
 
         tm.assert_almost_equal(recons_data, expected_records)
 
+    def test_to_dict_invalid_orient(self):
+        df = DataFrame({'A':[0, 1]})
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, df.to_dict, orient='invalid')
+
     def test_to_records_dt64(self):
         df = DataFrame([["one", "two", "three"],
                         ["four", "five", "six"]],