Aligning movieclip _x and width problem

Hi

I`m trying to get a bunch of attached movie clips have a different widths for certain clips

var words_list = [[“a”], [“a”, “-”, “b”, “ou”,"-" “t”],[“we”,"-",“jk”-“h”]

Im attaching each letter into a seperate movie clip.
When I get to a “-” sign I want to clip to be smaller in width. The problem Im having is that all the clips are the same distance apart and I need them to be different widths depending on if its a "-" or a letter. I think the problem is the "vari" variable, but Im blowed if i can figure it out!

for (i=0; i