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Is there a difference in pronunciation between "ist" -be (3p. sing) and "isst" -eat (3p. sing)?

EDIT: I posted the second part as an independent question

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3 Answers

up vote 13 down vote accepted

No.

According to wiktionary.org (and my experience) the pronounciation is the same for "ist" and "isst":

ist: [ɪst]
isst: [ɪst]

Some people will argue that you emphasize the "s" in "isst", but in fact the emphasis is on the "i" both times according to the Duden.

'ist
'isst

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5  
One thing worth noting is that in "ist" the t tends to be dropped in informal spoken language ("Er is' 'ne Gurke."). That does not happen with "isst" ("Er isst 'ne Gurke."). – elena Jun 5 '12 at 12:10
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@elena: I was about to start an answer and saw your great comment. The difference you mention is true for all regional dialects, be it Hamburg or Zwiesel. – zebonaut Jun 9 '12 at 12:05
up vote 0 down vote

In "isst", you put more emphasis on the i and the s is a little bit sharper than in "ist".

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You might try this in an ambiguous situation to make clear which of the two words you mean. But in general: No, I can't confirm what you say. – Hendrik Vogt Jun 3 '12 at 13:12
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There really isn't an ambiguous situation that could occur where you could mix the 2 up, Er isst pizza when you say this it could sound like He is pizza but from context you can tell the sentence means He eats pizza – John Jun 3 '12 at 17:50
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@John: True, it's hardly ever ambiguous. But sometimes it's even on purpose: Man ist was man isst. – Hendrik Vogt Jun 3 '12 at 18:01
Nein, das stimmt nicht. "ist" und "isst" werden genau gleich ausgesprochen: "Hans ist ein Hamburger, der einen Hamburger isst." – Hubert Schölnast Jun 4 '12 at 13:22
Ambiguous situation: "er ist schnell" vs. "er isst schnell" — but here, in the first case youd' emphasize as "er ist schnell" while in the second case you'd normally say "er isst schnell" unless you explicitly want to emphasize "schnell" (OT-Englischfrage: habe ich "betonen" korrekt mit "emphasize" übersetzt?) – celtschk Jun 12 '12 at 18:13
up vote 4 down vote

They sound exactly the same, they just are spelled differently

Er isst einen Hamburger.

Er ist ein Hamburger.

They are 2 different verbs that have 2 different meanings, that when conjugated for Er/Sie/Es sound exactly the same

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