diff --git a/scripts/setlocalversion b/scripts/setlocalversion
index e90a91cc5185..dc54b1982958 100755
--- a/scripts/setlocalversion
+++ b/scripts/setlocalversion
@@ -160,8 +160,10 @@ if test "$CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO" = "y"; then
 	# full scm version string
 	res="$res$(scm_version)"
 else
-	# apped a plus sign if the repository is not in a clean tagged
-	# state and  LOCALVERSION= is not specified
+	# append a plus sign if the repository is not in a clean
+	# annotated or signed tagged state (as git describe only
+	# looks at signed or annotated tags - git tag -a/-s) and
+	# LOCALVERSION= is not specified
 	if test "${LOCALVERSION+set}" != "set"; then
 		scm=$(scm_version --short)
 		res="$res${scm:++}"