diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ARGV.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ARGV.rb
index 9c145d1abc..bdfb8fd523 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ARGV.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ARGV.rb
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ module HomebrewArgvExtension
     flag? '--force'
   end
   def verbose?
-    flag? '--verbose' or ENV['HOMEBREW_VERBOSE']
+    flag? '--verbose' or ENV['VERBOSE'] or ENV['HOMEBREW_VERBOSE']
   end
   def debug?
     flag? '--debug' or ENV['HOMEBREW_DEBUG']