diff --git a/django/db/models/options.py b/django/db/models/options.py
index 502cbc4a65b..788d1c80dea 100644
--- a/django/db/models/options.py
+++ b/django/db/models/options.py
@@ -52,9 +52,19 @@ class Options(object):
             del meta_attrs['__doc__']
             for attr_name in DEFAULT_NAMES:
                 setattr(self, attr_name, meta_attrs.pop(attr_name, getattr(self, attr_name)))
+
+            # unique_together can be either a tuple of tuples, or a single
+            # tuple of two strings. Normalize it to a tuple of tuples, so that
+            # calling code can uniformly expect that.
+            ut = meta_attrs.pop('unique_together', getattr(self, 'unique_together'))
+            if ut and not isinstance(ut[0], (tuple, list)):
+                ut = (ut,)
+            setattr(self, 'unique_together', ut)
+
             # verbose_name_plural is a special case because it uses a 's'
             # by default.
             setattr(self, 'verbose_name_plural', meta_attrs.pop('verbose_name_plural', string_concat(self.verbose_name, 's')))
+
             # Any leftover attributes must be invalid.
             if meta_attrs != {}:
                 raise TypeError, "'class Meta' got invalid attribute(s): %s" % ','.join(meta_attrs.keys())
diff --git a/docs/model-api.txt b/docs/model-api.txt
index d6327bc7959..a8af05f676f 100644
--- a/docs/model-api.txt
+++ b/docs/model-api.txt
@@ -1226,6 +1226,13 @@ together. It's used in the Django admin and is enforced at the database
 level (i.e., the appropriate ``UNIQUE`` statements are included in the
 ``CREATE TABLE`` statement).
 
+**New in Django development version**
+
+For convenience, unique_together can be a single list when dealing
+with a single set of fields::
+
+	unique_together = ("driver", "restaurant")
+
 ``verbose_name``
 ----------------