diff --git a/usr.bin/make/make.1 b/usr.bin/make/make.1
index 2c478a3d1e7a..5ba578bc15fd 100644
--- a/usr.bin/make/make.1
+++ b/usr.bin/make/make.1
@@ -852,7 +852,7 @@ These directories will be searched for source files by
 .Nm
 after it has finished parsing all input makefiles.
 .El
-.Pp
+.Ss Variable modifiers
 Variable expansion may be modified to select or modify each word of the
 variable (where a
 .Dq word
@@ -867,7 +867,7 @@ The colon may be escaped with a backslash
 .Pq Ql \e .
 .Bl -tag -width Cm
 .Sm off
-.It Cm C No / Ar pattern Xo
+.It Cm \&:C No / Ar pattern Xo
 .No / Ar replacement
 .No / Op Cm 1g
 .Xc
@@ -896,13 +896,13 @@ and
 are orthogonal; the former specifies whether multiple words are
 potentially affected, the latter whether multiple substitutions can
 potentially occur within each affected word.
-.It Cm E
+.It Cm \&:E
 Replaces each word in the variable with its suffix.
-.It Cm H
+.It Cm \&:H
 Replaces each word in the variable with everything but the last component.
-.It Cm L
+.It Cm \&:L
 Converts variable to lower-case letters.
-.It Cm M Ns Ar pattern
+.It Cm \&:M Ns Ar pattern
 Select only those words that match the rest of the modifier.
 The standard shell wildcard characters
 .Pf ( Ql * ,
@@ -913,21 +913,21 @@ may
 be used.
 The wildcard characters may be escaped with a backslash
 .Pq Ql \e .
-.It Cm N Ns Ar pattern
+.It Cm \&:N Ns Ar pattern
 This is identical to
-.Cm M ,
+.Cm \&:M ,
 but selects all words which do not match
 the rest of the modifier.
-.It Cm O
+.It Cm \&:O
 Order every word in the variable alphabetically.
-.It Cm Q
+.It Cm \&:Q
 Quotes every shell meta-character in the variable, so that it can be passed
 safely through recursive invocations of
 .Nm .
-.It Cm R
+.It Cm \&:R
 Replaces each word in the variable with everything but its suffix.
 .Sm off
-.It Cm S No / Ar old_string Xo
+.It Cm \&:S No / Ar old_string Xo
 .No / Ar new_string
 .No / Op Cm g
 .Xc
@@ -971,7 +971,7 @@ with the single exception that a backslash is used to prevent the expansion
 of a dollar sign
 .Pq Ql $ ,
 not a preceding dollar sign as is usual.
-.It Ar old_string=new_string
+.It Ar :old_string=new_string
 This is the
 .At V
 style variable substitution.
@@ -991,11 +991,11 @@ is the substring of
 .Ar old_string
 to be replaced in
 .Ar new_string
-.It Cm T
+.It Cm \&:T
 Replaces each word in the variable with its last component.
-.It Cm U
+.It Cm \&:U
 Converts variable to upper-case letters.
-.It Cm u
+.It Cm \&:u
 Remove adjacent duplicate words (like
 .Xr uniq 1 ) .
 .El