Why Is Flour One Syllable and Flower Two?

  • Flour is one syllable, flower is two.
  • Why:
    • A syllable is the sound of a vowel that is created when pronouncing an A, E, I, O, U, or Y.
      • read the full definition of a syllable: here
    Flour
    • Flour is pronounced: fl-ow-r.
    • The O and U make one vowel sound, ow. The remaining sound is made by the R, which is not a vowel.
    • Since there is only 1 vowel sound from the vowels "ou", there can be only 1 syllable.
    Flower
    • flower is pronounced: fl-ow-er.
    • The OW make one vowel sound. The remaining sound is made by the ER.
    • Since the E is a vowel and there are two vowel sounds, flower is 2 syllables.

Cite This Source

Fun Fact
Typewriter is written using
only the top row of a keyboard.
Bibliography Citations
MLA   |    APA   |   Chicago Manual Style