The nouns dessert and desert are not only spelled differently, but they are pronounced differently also.
Everyone likes dessert – that sweet treat at the end of a meal. In fact, we all like dessert so much that we might want to eat two. The word dessert has a double –s because we would all like a double dessert.
I had strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight.
Mom always said I had to finish my dinner before I could have dessert.
Dessert puts the emphasis on the second syllable. De-zert.
Desert puts the emphasis on the first syllable. De-zert.
A desert is a dry and barren land where nothing will grow. No one wants to be stuck in the desert so one desert is enough. That’s why there is only one –s in desert.
Camels are able to survive in the hot desert.
The Sahara Desert lies in northern Africa.
Now the English language gets a little more confusing because desert can also be a verb when it means to leave someone or something behind. The verb desert is pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. De-zert.
Please don’t desert me during my hour of need.
You should not desert your post during guard duty.
Remember that dessert is something good and we want two of them, so dessert has a double –s.
The noun desert and the verb desert have only one –s because they are both bad things and we want only one of them.