How to tell the difference between "ice" and "ice cream" when the word "Eis" is used?

Question

Ice and "ice cream" both translate to "Eis" in German. Is the only way to differentiate between them by context?For instance, if you want to translate the sentences> "Does this store sell ice?"and> "Does this store sell ice cream?"would the resulting German translations turn out totally the same and indistinguishable from one another?I'm curious about both ways, when writing German, how to make the meaning clear, and when reading German, how to distinguish between the possible cases.

Answer 1

Normally if we talk and you hear the entire sentence one can figure out if somebody talks about ice cream or only ice.

In German both words mean Eis.

If I only read the sentence: "Does this store sell ice?" Verkauft dieses Geschäft Eis?" It could be both, ice cream and ice. But I would guess one refers to ice cream.