# Danish: lys (spinkel og lys)



## liv3000

What does this expression means in Danish:
Spinkel og lys.

thanks

Liv


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## bicontinental

Hi liv3000,
What´s the context for this sentence? Is this in reference to a person (or an object)?


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## liv3000

Hi, It is referred to a voice.
"William kan høre sin egen stemme. Den ryster, spinkel og lys i den store festsal med de mange anspændte ansigter."


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## bicontinental

liv3000 said:


> Hi, It is referred to a voice.
> "William kan høre sin egen stemme. Den ryster, spinkel og lys i den store festsal med de mange anspændte ansigter."



Hi liv,

  This sounds like the description of someone who is nervous and anxious prior to…..talking in public, giving a presentation, a speech?


  His voice is trembling (_ryster, dirrer_), it is feeble, weak (_spinkel, svag, uden styrke_) and high pitched (_lys…’en lys stemme_’ is a characteristic description of the voice of a young boy whose voice hasn’t yet changed into the deeper voice of an adult)


Bic.


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## liv3000

Exactly, that is indeed the situation, a kid who has to speak in public. Can it maybe be replaced with: "Svag og barnlig "?

 I ve found this expression in an article as well:
"Gerningsmand er _spinkel og lys_ i huden" this is the title of the paragraph.
Is it a different nuance of its meaning?

Thanks


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## bicontinental

liv3000 said:


> Exactly, that is indeed the situation, a kid who has to speak in public. Can it maybe be replaced with: "Svag og barnlig "?
> 
> I ve found this expression in an article as well:
> "Gerningsmand er _spinkel og lys_ i huden" this is the title of the paragraph.
> Is it a different nuance of its meaning?
> 
> Thanks





  Liv, I think ‘svag’ works well as a synonym for ‘spinkel’ in this context. 


  ‘Barnlig’, as you know, means ‘child-like’; it wouldn’t be a natural synonym for ‘lys’. ‘Barnlig’ frequently refers to the behavior, the appearance or actions of an individual, and _may _have a slightly negative connotation depending on the context. In your example above the adjective ‘lys’ describes a physical characteristic of his voice in reference to its vocal range…it is high-pitched (as opposed to deep, low-pitched).  In an attempt to further clarify, I mentioned that this is typical of the voice of a young child, but that is not to say that ‘barnlig’ is implied by the term ‘lys stemme’, so I’m glad you asked. In other words the voice of an adult can be ‘lys’. I hope this explains why these adjectives are not synonymous.


  Context is everything..._Gerningsmanden er spinkel og *lys i huden*_. In this example ’lys’ modifies ’i huden’ which is a description of the physical appearance of his skin tone or color. It means that he is light skinned or has a light complexion.

  Bic.


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## liv3000

Thank you so much! 
It helped a lot, especially because I had understood, that spinkel & lys had to go together, but actually not necessarily!
The example of "lys (referred to) i huden" clarified that completely.
thanks!


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## hanne

liv3000 said:


> It helped a lot, especially because I had understood, that spinkel & lys had to go together,


Not at all, they're two separate words that just happen to describe the same object in your sentence. Which is why I've been struggling not to consider this thread "multi-topic" .

Since most of the discussion has been on "lys" so far, I think we can consider that the main topic of the thread. If anyone would like to discuss "spinkel" any further, please let me know, then I'll split off the relevant parts of this thread. Thank you.


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## liv3000

Fine with me, I put it together only because I though it was a fixed expression, cause when i google it, "lys" came out in the preview after i had typed "spinkel", so theese two words might just very often go together.


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## Sepia

liv3000 said:


> Fine with me, I put it together only because I though it was a fixed expression, cause when i google it, "lys" came out in the preview after i had typed "spinkel", so theese two words might just very often go together.



When talking about tones or voices, of course: Weak and high-pitched


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