diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/gis/commands.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/gis/commands.txt
index 3dd161ce1d..015a1f9741 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/gis/commands.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/gis/commands.txt
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ of using ``ogrinspect`` :ref:`in the tutorial <ogrinspect-intro>`.
    The key for specifying which layer in the OGR
    :class:`~django.contrib.gis.gdal.DataSource` source to use.
    Defaults to 0 (the first layer). May be an integer or a string identifier
-   for the :class:`~django.contrib.gis.gdal.Layer`.
+   for the :class:`~django.contrib.gis.gdal.Layer`. When inspecting databases,
+   ``layer`` is generally the table name you want to inspect.
 
 .. django-admin-option:: --mapping