diff --git a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt
index ed9d63ef4a..02576d8c0a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-read-tree.txt
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ Merging
 -------
 If `-m` is specified, 'git read-tree' can perform 3 kinds of
 merge, a single tree merge if only 1 tree is given, a
-fast-forward merge with 2 trees, or a 3-way merge if 3 trees are
+fast-forward merge with 2 trees, or a 3-way merge if 3 or more trees are
 provided.
 
 
diff --git a/builtin/am.c b/builtin/am.c
index 8b218f9978..0f63dcab16 100644
--- a/builtin/am.c
+++ b/builtin/am.c
@@ -1312,7 +1312,7 @@ static int parse_mail(struct am_state *state, const char *mail)
 	}
 
 	if (is_empty_file(am_path(state, "patch"))) {
-		printf_ln(_("Patch is empty. Was it split wrong?"));
+		printf_ln(_("Patch is empty."));
 		die_user_resolve(state);
 	}
 
@@ -1931,7 +1931,8 @@ static void am_resolve(struct am_state *state)
 
 	if (unmerged_cache()) {
 		printf_ln(_("You still have unmerged paths in your index.\n"
-			"Did you forget to use 'git add'?"));
+			"You should 'git add' each file with resolved conflicts to mark them as such.\n"
+			"You might run `git rm` on a file to accept \"deleted by them\" for it."));
 		die_user_resolve(state);
 	}
 
diff --git a/builtin/checkout.c b/builtin/checkout.c
index b6249a3a39..a6b2af39d3 100644
--- a/builtin/checkout.c
+++ b/builtin/checkout.c
@@ -1289,9 +1289,8 @@ int cmd_checkout(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		 * new_branch && argc > 1 will be caught later.
 		 */
 		if (opts.new_branch && argc == 1)
-			die(_("Cannot update paths and switch to branch '%s' at the same time.\n"
-			      "Did you intend to checkout '%s' which can not be resolved as commit?"),
-			    opts.new_branch, argv[0]);
+			die(_("'%s' is not a commit and a branch '%s' cannot be created from it"),
+				argv[0], opts.new_branch);
 
 		if (opts.force_detach)
 			die(_("git checkout: --detach does not take a path argument '%s'"),
diff --git a/builtin/read-tree.c b/builtin/read-tree.c
index daf8d7795d..78d3193659 100644
--- a/builtin/read-tree.c
+++ b/builtin/read-tree.c
@@ -226,9 +226,10 @@ int cmd_read_tree(int argc, const char **argv, const char *unused_prefix)
 		setup_work_tree();
 
 	if (opts.merge) {
-		if (stage < 2)
-			die("just how do you expect me to merge %d trees?", stage-1);
 		switch (stage - 1) {
+		case 0:
+			die("you must specify at least one tree to merge");
+			break;
 		case 1:
 			opts.fn = opts.prefix ? bind_merge : oneway_merge;
 			break;
diff --git a/git-filter-branch.sh b/git-filter-branch.sh
index 2b8cdba157..aafaf708da 100755
--- a/git-filter-branch.sh
+++ b/git-filter-branch.sh
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ git rev-parse --no-flags --revs-only --symbolic-full-name \
 sed -e '/^^/d' "$tempdir"/raw-heads >"$tempdir"/heads
 
 test -s "$tempdir"/heads ||
-	die "Which ref do you want to rewrite?"
+	die "You must specify a ref to rewrite."
 
 GIT_INDEX_FILE="$(pwd)/../index"
 export GIT_INDEX_FILE
diff --git a/help.c b/help.c
index bc6cd19cf3..a07f01e6f9 100644
--- a/help.c
+++ b/help.c
@@ -411,8 +411,8 @@ const char *help_unknown_cmd(const char *cmd)
 
 	if (SIMILAR_ENOUGH(best_similarity)) {
 		fprintf_ln(stderr,
-			   Q_("\nDid you mean this?",
-			      "\nDid you mean one of these?",
+			   Q_("\nThe most similar command is",
+			      "\nThe most similar commands are",
 			   n));
 
 		for (i = 0; i < n; i++)