Setting the PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE to PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION applies to both PDO and PDO::PDOStatement objects. Also, exceptions are thrown by: PDO::beginTransaction(), PDO::prepare(), PDOStatement::execute(), PDO::commit(), PDOStatement::fetch(), PDOStatement::fetchAll() and so on... Some of these are specified in their respective documentations as to return 'false' in case of an error.