diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index b8d440d0e0..36b0e2be19 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -643,7 +643,7 @@ int cmd_grep(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		OPT_BOOL(0, "untracked", &untracked,
 			N_("search in both tracked and untracked files")),
 		OPT_SET_INT(0, "exclude-standard", &opt_exclude,
-			    N_("search also in ignored files"), 1),
+			    N_("ignore files specified via '.gitignore'"), 1),
 		OPT_GROUP(""),
 		OPT_BOOL('v', "invert-match", &opt.invert,
 			N_("show non-matching lines")),