diff --git a/Documentation/git-clean.txt b/Documentation/git-clean.txt
index e84ffc9396..3ab749b921 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-clean.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-clean.txt
@@ -26,10 +26,12 @@ are affected.
 OPTIONS
 -------
 -d::
-	Remove untracked directories in addition to untracked files.
-	If an untracked directory is managed by a different Git
-	repository, it is not removed by default.  Use -f option twice
-	if you really want to remove such a directory.
+	Normally, when no <path> is specified, git clean will not
+	recurse into untracked directories to avoid removing too much.
+	Specify -d to have it recurse into such directories as well.
+	If any paths are specified, -d is irrelevant; all untracked
+	files matching the specified paths (with exceptions for nested
+	git directories mentioned under `--force`) will be removed.
 
 -f::
 --force::
diff --git a/builtin/clean.c b/builtin/clean.c
index d5579da716..68d70e41c0 100644
--- a/builtin/clean.c
+++ b/builtin/clean.c
@@ -949,6 +949,14 @@ int cmd_clean(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	dir.flags |= DIR_SHOW_OTHER_DIRECTORIES;
 
+	if (argc) {
+		/*
+		 * Remaining args implies pathspecs specified, and we should
+		 * recurse within those.
+		 */
+		remove_directories = 1;
+	}
+
 	if (remove_directories)
 		dir.flags |= DIR_SHOW_IGNORED_TOO | DIR_KEEP_UNTRACKED_CONTENTS;
 
diff --git a/t/t7300-clean.sh b/t/t7300-clean.sh
index d83aeb7dc2..530dfdab34 100755
--- a/t/t7300-clean.sh
+++ b/t/t7300-clean.sh
@@ -117,6 +117,7 @@ test_expect_success C_LOCALE_OUTPUT 'git clean with relative prefix' '
 	would_clean=$(
 		cd docs &&
 		git clean -n ../src |
+		grep part3 |
 		sed -n -e "s|^Would remove ||p"
 	) &&
 	verbose test "$would_clean" = ../src/part3.c
@@ -129,6 +130,7 @@ test_expect_success C_LOCALE_OUTPUT 'git clean with absolute path' '
 	would_clean=$(
 		cd docs &&
 		git clean -n "$(pwd)/../src" |
+		grep part3 |
 		sed -n -e "s|^Would remove ||p"
 	) &&
 	verbose test "$would_clean" = ../src/part3.c