We consider a nonlinear Dirichlet problem driven by a general nonhomogeneous differential operator and with a reaction exhibiting the combined effects of a parametric singular term plus a Carathéodory perturbation $f(z,x,y)$
f
(
z
,
x
,
y
)
which is only locally defined in $x \in {\mathbb {R}} $
x
∈
R
. Using the frozen variable method, we prove the existence of a positive smooth solution, when the parameter is small.