diff --git a/reference/pdo/error-handling.xml b/reference/pdo/error-handling.xml
index af26c27ec8..ca4c03c7dd 100644
--- a/reference/pdo/error-handling.xml
+++ b/reference/pdo/error-handling.xml
@@ -95,6 +95,47 @@ try {
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
+ <note>
+  <para>
+   <function>PDO::__construct</function> will always throw a <classname>PDOException</classname> if the connection fails
+   regardless of which <constant>PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE</constant> is currently set. Uncaught Exceptions are fatal.
+  </para>
+ </note>
+ <para>
+  <example>
+   <title>Create a PDO instance and set the error mode from the constructor</title>
+   <programlisting role="php">
+<![CDATA[
+<?php
+$dsn = 'mysql:dbname=test;host=127.0.0.1';
+$user = 'googleguy';
+$password = 'googleguy';
+
+/*
+    Using try/catch around the constructor is still valid even though we set the ERRMODE to WARNING since
+    PDO::__construct will always throw a PDOException if the connection fails.
+*/
+try {
+    $dbh = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password, array(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING));
+} catch (PDOException $e) {
+    echo 'Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
+    exit;
+}
+
+// This will cause PDO to throw an error of level E_WARNING instead of an exception (when the table doesn't exist)
+$dbh->query("SELECT wrongcolumn FROM wrongtable");
+?>
+]]>
+   </programlisting>
+    &example.outputs;
+    <screen>
+<![CDATA[
+Warning: PDO::query(): SQLSTATE[42S02]: Base table or view not found: 1146 Table 'test.wrongtable' doesn't exist in
+/tmp/pdo_test.php on line 18
+]]>
+    </screen>
+  </example>
+ </para>
 </chapter>
 
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