diff --git a/maca_common/src/mcd.c b/maca_common/src/mcd.c
index 4065f23381c5d6ce3ee1bd00fc70c72bc0cb20cd..115e8ce3e71892540e71815a3a17530043946fb5 100644
--- a/maca_common/src/mcd.c
+++ b/maca_common/src/mcd.c
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ mcd *mcd_read(char *mcd_filename, int verbose)
        continue;
      }
      if(verbose) fprintf(stderr, "column = %d\tword feature = %s\trepresentation = %s\tfilename = %s\n", column, wf, representation, filename);
+     column--; /* in the mcd file, columns begin at index 1, in internal representation, columns begin at index 0 */
      m->wf[column] = mcd_wf_code(wf);
      m->wf_str[column] = strdup(wf);
      if(m->wf[column] == -1){