diff --git a/src/tar.c b/src/tar.c
index 252bc67e..60cd306d 100644
--- a/src/tar.c
+++ b/src/tar.c
@@ -343,10 +343,10 @@ static struct argp_option options[] = {
   {"numeric-owner", NUMERIC_OWNER_OPTION, 0, 0,
    N_("always use numbers for user/group names"), 31 },
   {"preserve-permissions", 'p', 0, 0,
-   N_("extract permissions information"), 31 },
+   N_("extract information about file permissions (default for superuser)"), 31 },
   {"same-permissions", 0, 0, OPTION_ALIAS, NULL, 31 },
   {"no-same-permissions", NO_SAME_PERMISSIONS_OPTION, 0, 0,
-   N_("do not extract permissions information"), 31 },
+   N_("apply the user's umask when extracting permissions from the archive (default for ordinary users)"), 31 },
   {"preserve-order", 's', 0, 0,
    N_("sort names to extract to match archive"), 31 },
   {"same-order", 0, 0, OPTION_ALIAS, NULL, 31 },