diff --git a/docs/reference/glib/gvariant-varargs.xml b/docs/reference/glib/gvariant-varargs.xml
index 77cc2715b..2e1eed64f 100644
--- a/docs/reference/glib/gvariant-varargs.xml
+++ b/docs/reference/glib/gvariant-varargs.xml
@@ -221,7 +221,8 @@
       </entry>
       <entry colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
        <para>
-        Used as a prefix on a GVariant type string (not format string).  Denotes that a pointer to a
+        Used as a prefix for a GVariant type string (not a prefix for a format string, so <literal>@as</literal> is
+        a valid format string but <literal>@^as</literal> is not).  Denotes that a pointer to a
         <link linkend='GVariant'>GVariant</link> should be used in place of the normal C type or types.  For
         <link linkend='g-variant-new'><function>g_variant_new()</function></link> this means that you must pass a
         non-<link linkend='NULL:CAPS'><literal>NULL</literal></link> <code>(<link linkend='GVariant'>GVariant</link>
@@ -260,7 +261,9 @@
       </entry>
       <entry colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
        <para>
-        Used as a prefix on a GVariant type string (not format string).  Denotes that a C pointer to serialised data
+        Used as a prefix for a GVariant type string (not a prefix for a format string, so <literal>&amp;s</literal> is
+        a valid format string but <literal>&amp;@s</literal> is not).
+        Denotes that a C pointer to serialised data
         should be used in place of the normal C type.  See
         <link linkend='gvariant-format-strings-pointers'>Pointers</link> below.
        </para>