diff --git a/libsolidity/analysis/SyntaxChecker.cpp b/libsolidity/analysis/SyntaxChecker.cpp
index d44fceb4a..a95b48792 100644
--- a/libsolidity/analysis/SyntaxChecker.cpp
+++ b/libsolidity/analysis/SyntaxChecker.cpp
@@ -75,12 +75,13 @@ bool SyntaxChecker::visit(PragmaDirective const& _pragma)
 		vector<string> literals(_pragma.literals().begin() + 1, _pragma.literals().end());
 		SemVerMatchExpressionParser parser(tokens, literals);
 		auto matchExpression = parser.parse();
-		SemVerVersion currentVersion{string(VersionNumber)};
+		SemVerVersion currentVersion{string(VersionString)};
 		if (!matchExpression.matches(currentVersion))
 			syntaxError(
 				_pragma.location(),
 				"Source file requires different compiler version (current compiler is " +
-				string(VersionNumber) + ")."
+				string(VersionString) + " - note that nightly builds are considered to be "
+				"strictly less than the released version"
 			);
 		m_versionPragmaFound = true;
 	}