Fix typos

Doc/whatsnew/whatsnew24.tex

@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ language.
 \begin{itemize}
 
 \item The string methods, \method{ljust()}, \method{rjust()}, and
-\method{center()} now take a optional argument for specifying a
+\method{center()} now take an optional argument for specifying a
 fill character other than a space.
 
 \item The \method{sort()} method of lists gained three keyword
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ yellow 5
 
 
 \item The \function{zip()} built-in function and \function{itertools.izip()}
-  now returns an empty list instead of raising a \exception{TypeError}
+  now return an empty list instead of raising a \exception{TypeError}
   exception if called with no arguments.  This makes the functions more
   suitable for use with variable length argument lists: