# Hyphenation curiousity in Word

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation-curiousity-in-word/592376>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation-curiousity-in-word/592376 "2011-08-11T20:48:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hyphenation-curiousity-in-word/592376/1 "2011-08-11T20:48:19Z")

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Occasionally (maybe one-tenth of the time) when I optionally hyphenate a word in Word by pressing {Ctl}-, Word responds by doubling the letter after the soft hyphen. I think it’s doing this to make the first part a true word. For example, if I type “respective” and then go back and put a soft hyphen after the c, I get “respect-” on the first line and “tive” on the next.

This is annoying. Anyone else have this problem and figured out how to make it stop? It’s Word 2003 I’ve noticed it in.