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I am currently reading this article, and I came across this line,

Turkey, which neighbors trouble spots such as Syria, Iraq and Iran, has long sought to address shortcomings concerning its air defenses.

I would like to ask you especially on the bold part.

Are they respectively noun adjective?

Or do I need to interpret it as "neighbors, (such as Syria, Iraq, and Iran) that trouble spots."

But does the "trouble" sport by itself?

Or does it mean "which neighbors" are "trouble spots"? In that case, the pronoun "whose" might be better?

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  • @J.R. would you teach me if not putting space between the parenthesis and the following word is a good practice? Here in my country it's vice versa I think. – Kentaro Jul 18 at 22:16
  • I have told you on many occasions that it's wrong to do that in English, and I have corrected that eyesore for you many times. – J.R.♦ Jul 18 at 22:20
  • Spaces go outside parentheses and quotation marks. But after comma, full stop, question/exclamation mark, colon, semicolon. So it should look (like this) and "like this". – jonathanjo Jul 18 at 22:20
  • @J.R "Spaces go outside parentheses and quotation marks." Thanks. I will keep it in my mind. – Kentaro Jul 18 at 22:23
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In this example, the words have the following roles:

neighbours trouble spots
verb       adj     noun-pl

"to neighbour" is a verb meaning "to be next to", where two countries, towns or buildings are near to each other.

"Trouble spots" are places ("spots") where there is trouble. A trouble spot can be in a piece of machinery which goes wrong, a bar where they have fights, or a place in the world with warfare.

It's exactly the same construction as:

France, which borders rich countries such as Germany, Netherlands and Spain, has long wanted to ...

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