Dear Joe,
Try this:
\version "2.25.28"
\relative c'' {
c32 c c c
c32 c c c
c32 c c c
c32 c c c
}
\addlyrics {
syl -- lab word word
\override LyricHyphen.minimum-distance = #1.0
syl -- lab word word
\override LyricHyphen.minimum-distance = #2.0
syl -- lab word word
\revert LyricHyphen.minimum-distance
syl -- lab word word
}
see
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/snippets/vocal-music-_002d-forcing-hyphens-to-be-shown
Thanks, is this what you were hoping for?
On 11/28/25 6:30 PM, Joseph Haig wrote:
Please excuse a question that is probably simple but I cannot find an
answer to. What is the correct way to include a real hyphen in lyrics?
That is to say, a hyphenated word in the lyrics that should be typeset
with a hyphen even when the parts are close enough to not need spacing
between syllables. The word I am looking at is 'earth-bound'. If I use;
\lyricmode { earth -- bound }
then the hyphen could disappear. At the moment I have
\lyricmode { "earth -" bound }
and it works because, as I have found by experimenting, the two
syllables are approximately the same length. If they were more
imbalanced (eg 'T-shirt') then the spacing is wrong.
Regards,
Joe
