How to Distinguish: Look at the word's spelling and context: Some patterns can help, but not always. For instance, "ow" after "l" or "r" tends to make the "ou" sound (e.g., "flower," "brown"). However, there are exceptions, so don't rely solely on this rule. Listen and i...
Finally, we have the words that end with /er/ like flower. What is important to note, is that /er/ is a separate syllable. It is an r-controlled vowel. So words like power and tower follow the rule. The first syllable is pow and the second syllable is er. So of course we use ...