Why do we spell desert and dessert differently and we pronounce them in the same way?

Answer 1

They're not pronounced the same. Each one has the inflection on a different syllable.

Answer 2

They come from different words and phrases. Its part of what makes English so hard to learn.

btw: The American Heritage Dictionary, mentioned earlier, uses the same pronounciation for desserts and desert, either if you desert your friends or you get your just deserts, but not for an arid wasteland.

Edit: the website cited by Susan further down, (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=desert&x=0&y=0)
uses the same pronounciation for dessert [di-zurt], desert2 [di-zurt] and desert3 [di-zurt].

Edit2: Fascinating! To prove me wrong about American Heritage Dictionary, Swirly has edited his answer to show Infoplease which shows:
des•sert

Pronunciation: (di-zûrt'), [key]
—n.
1. cake, pie, fruit, pudding, ice cream, etc., served as the final course of a meal.

de•sert
Pronunciation: (di-zûrt'), [key]
—v.t.
1. to leave (a person, place, etc.) without intending to return, esp. in violation of a duty, promise, or the like: He deserted his wife.

de•sert

Pronunciation: (di-zûrt'), [key]
—n.
1. Often, deserts. reward or punishment that is deserved: to get one's just deserts.

Here again, they are all pronounced the same way although, again, the wasteland form of desert is not.

Answer 3

One is a piece of land with sand(desert)( Dessert )is something sweet. They are not pronounced the same.

Answer 4

We spell them differently because they are 2 different words with different meaning. And no, they are not pronounced the same way.

Answer 5

In most parts of the country (America) dessert is pronounced dizz-ert...and desert is dezert.
Aside from that they are different things...so having a different spelling in and of that is not odd. Right??

Answer 6

They are not pronounced the same way. Desert is pronounced dez' zert with the accent on the first syllable. Dessert is pronounced diz Zert' with the accent on the second syllable.

Answer 7

Desert is pronounced Dez- ert.
Dessert is pronounced Da-zert.
Hope that helps.

Answer 8

we spell them differently b/c they mean different things, a desert is a bare piece of land and a dessert is a sweet dish.

Answer 9

They're not pronounced the same...see my examples below

des‧ert [dez-ert] - A region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all: The Sahara is a vast sandy desert.

des‧sert  [dɪˈzert] - Cake, pie, fruit, pudding, ice cream, etc., served as the final course of a meal.

Answer 10

I pronounce them differently