diff --git a/src/generics.jl b/src/generics.jl
index 01de690..baea127 100644
--- a/src/generics.jl
+++ b/src/generics.jl
@@ -30,11 +30,21 @@ end
 function (rlayer::AbstractRecurrentLayer{false})(inp::AbstractArray,
         state::Union{AbstractVecOrMat, Tuple{AbstractVecOrMat, AbstractVecOrMat}})
     @assert ndims(inp) == 2 || ndims(inp) == 3
+    @assert typeof(state)==typeof(initialstates(rlayer)) """\n
+      The layer $rlayer is calling states not supported by its
+      forward method. Check if this is a single or double return
+      recurrent layer, and adjust your inputs accordingly.
+  """
     return first(scan(rlayer.cell, inp, state))
 end
 
 function (rlayer::AbstractRecurrentLayer{true})(inp::AbstractArray,
         state::Union{AbstractVecOrMat, Tuple{AbstractVecOrMat, AbstractVecOrMat}})
     @assert ndims(inp) == 2 || ndims(inp) == 3
+    @assert typeof(state)==typeof(initialstates(rlayer)) """\n
+      The layer $rlayer is calling states not supported by its
+      forward method. Check if this is a single or double return
+      recurrent layer, and adjust your inputs accordingly.
+  """
     return scan(rlayer.cell, inp, state)
 end
diff --git a/src/wrappers/stackedrnn.jl b/src/wrappers/stackedrnn.jl
index 4b81748..ac9d4bd 100644
--- a/src/wrappers/stackedrnn.jl
+++ b/src/wrappers/stackedrnn.jl
@@ -66,7 +66,9 @@ function StackedRNN(rlayer, (input_size, hidden_size)::Pair{<:Int, <:Int}, args.
 end
 
 function (stackedrnn::StackedRNN)(inp::AbstractArray)
-    @assert length(stackedrnn.layers)==length(stackedrnn.states) "Mismatch in layers vs. states length!"
+    @assert length(stackedrnn.layers)==length(stackedrnn.states) """\n
+        Mismatch in layers vs. states length!
+    """
     @assert !isempty(stackedrnn.layers) "StackedRNN has no layers!"
     for idx in eachindex(stackedrnn.layers)
         inp = stackedrnn.layers[idx](inp, stackedrnn.states[idx])