Dynamic light scattering (DLS) allows for efficient measurement of physical transport properties in fluids. It is now a well established technique for determination of mutual mass diffusion coefficients in binary mixtures and multicomponent macromolecular solutions. More recently, ternary systems of low-molecular weight compounds have been analyzed by DLS where it was found that only one of the two mass diffusion modes can be observed. In this work, a theoretical interpretation of these findings is provided. For this purpose, a simple theory is developed that describes the observed signals. Thereby, it can be shown that both diffusion modes contribute to the signal but one mode is strongly enhanced for situations typically encountered in DLS experiments. The developed theory thus clarifies the relationship between ternary DLS measurements and other diffusion experiments. It provides the practical basis for quantitative analysis of DLS experiments in ternary low-molecular weight fluids. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All fights reserved.