diff --git a/commands/version/__tests__/version-command.test.js b/commands/version/__tests__/version-command.test.js
index 692e4242f5..7755510ac9 100644
--- a/commands/version/__tests__/version-command.test.js
+++ b/commands/version/__tests__/version-command.test.js
@@ -734,4 +734,14 @@ describe("VersionCommand", () => {
       expect(changedFiles).toContain("packages/package-1/package-lock.json");
     });
   });
+
+  describe("with spurious -- arguments", () => {
+    it("ignores the extra arguments with cheesy parseConfiguration()", async () => {
+      const cwd = await initFixture("lifecycle");
+      await lernaVersion(cwd)("--yes", "--", "--loglevel", "ignored", "--blah");
+
+      const logMessages = loggingOutput("warn");
+      expect(logMessages).toContain("Arguments after -- are no longer passed to subprocess executions.");
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/commands/version/command.js b/commands/version/command.js
index 918910dde3..820687be02 100644
--- a/commands/version/command.js
+++ b/commands/version/command.js
@@ -156,6 +156,11 @@ exports.builder = (yargs, composed) => {
 
   yargs.options(opts);
 
+  // workaround yargs bug that re-interprets unknown arguments in argv._
+  yargs.parserConfiguration({
+    "populate--": true,
+  });
+
   if (!composed) {
     // hide options from composed command's help output
     yargs.group(Object.keys(opts), "Command Options:");
@@ -231,6 +236,11 @@ exports.builder = (yargs, composed) => {
       }
       /* eslint-enable no-param-reassign */
 
+      if (argv["--"]) {
+        log.warn("EDOUBLEDASH", "Arguments after -- are no longer passed to subprocess executions.");
+        log.warn("EDOUBLEDASH", "This will cause an error in a future major version.");
+      }
+
       return argv;
     });
 };