Question

mark the stress in the following words: special specialist, lonely, loneliness, flexible

Answer 1

Word stress means that a word with more than one syllable will be stressed or accented. And the rest will be unstressed, or, unaccented. 

1. Special has 2 syllables. The stressed syllable in special is spe-cial
2. Specialist has 3 syllables. The stressed syllable in specialist is spe-cial-ist
3. Lonely has 2 syllables. The stressed syllable in lonely is lone-ly
4. Loneliness has 3 syllables. The stressed syllable in loneliness is lone-li-ness
5. Flexible has 3 syllables. The stressed syllable in flexible is  flex-i-ble

Answer 2

All these words have first stressed syllable:

special     :  'Special  -  /ˈspɛʃ(ə)l/

specialist :  'Specialist  -  /ˈspɛʃ(ə)lɪst/

lonely      :   'Lonely  -  /ˈləʊnli/

lonelines   : 'Loneliness - /ˈləʊnlɪnɪs/

flexible    :    'Flexible  -  /ˈflɛksɪb(ə)l/