Sound Gym

flour · flower

Homophones /flaʊər/ — a baking ingredient and a blooming plant that sound exactly the same.

Homophones

Both words sound exactly the same: /flaʊər/

A baking ingredient and a blooming plant — spelled differently, sound identical.

⠿ reorder

A bag of white flour with a spilled pile

noun — finely ground wheat or other grain, used for baking — 'plain flour' · 'self-raising flour' · 'flour the board before kneading'

mouth shape

diphthong /aʊ/ + R — jaw drops wide open for /a/, then rises as lips round for /ʊ/, then glides into R — like 'hour', 'our', 'power'

flour

/flaʊər/

vowel length

diphthong /aʊ/

⠿ reorder

noun — the colourful bloom of a plant — 'a bunch of flowers' · 'wild flowers' · 'flower bed' · 'in full flower'

mouth shape

identical to flour — /flaʊər/ — these two words are perfect homophones

flower

/flaʊər/

vowel length

diphthong /aʊ/

Why do they sound the same?

Flour has the spelling ourepresenting /aʊ/ — the same vowel as “out”, “loud”, “hour”.Flower spells the same sound differently — the owin “flower” is the same diphthong /aʊ/, plus the -er ending which gives the same R-coloured schwa. Both end up as /flaʊər/ — a three-sound sequence: /f/, /laʊ/, /ər/.

fl-ou-r

ou → /aʊ/, r → /ər/

fl-ow-er

ow → /aʊ/, er → /ər/

Example sentences

flour:“She sifted the flour before adding it to the batter.”

flour:“The recipe calls for two cups of self-raising flour.”

flower:“She picked a flower from the garden for her mother.”

flower:“The cherry tree was in full flower in April.”

Hear it in a sentence

“She sifted the flour into the bowl and added a pinch of salt.”

“He picked a flower from the garden and left it on her desk.”