diff --git a/parlai/core/build_data.py b/parlai/core/build_data.py
index 43385ccc400..462bf430baf 100644
--- a/parlai/core/build_data.py
+++ b/parlai/core/build_data.py
@@ -496,11 +496,12 @@ def modelzoo_path(datapath, path):
                 module_name_ = 'parlai.zoo.{}'.format(animal_)
                 my_module = importlib.import_module(module_name_)
                 my_module.download(datapath)
-            except (ImportError, AttributeError):
+            except (ImportError, AttributeError) as exc:
                 # truly give up
                 raise ImportError(
                     f'Could not find pretrained model in {module_name} or {module_name_}.'
-                )
+                    ' Please check your spelling and make sure you\'ve pulled from master.'
+                ) from exc
 
         return os.path.join(datapath, 'models', model_path)
     else: