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This was dialogue from a detective manga where a police officer is interrogating a suspect.

脅迫気味に二人切になれた

(I got intimated with just the of us alone (?))

もののなかなか口を割らないので

ゴリ押し...

(I'll force through this)

I did find this https://thesaurus.weblio.jp/content/口を割らない so I assume it means to "keep one mouth's shut" Is that correct?

But my main issue here is I don't know what もののなかなか means here. Is it an adjective here? There's also a lot of different meanings for it so I'm confused.

Japandict says it means "by no means, not readily" when using with a negative verb. Though in that case, I'm not sure what the function of "ものの" is.

Is it "They won't reveal the truth by any means"?

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SupriseMechanics
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  • Related (regarding ものの): https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/13351/9831 / https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/61268/9831 – Chocolate Oct 06 '19 at 10:24

1 Answers1

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This ものの is a conjunction meaning "although". It's like (の)だが, けれども.

And なかなか is a negative polarity adverb meaning "(not) easily" or "(not) readily". 口を割る means "to confess (e.g., to a crime)" or "to cop out". There is no adjective in your sentence.

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