Breakdown of Huysuz olmasına karşın çok vurdumduymazdı.
çok
very
olmak
to be
karşın
despite, in spite of (formal alternative to rağmen)
huysuz
grumpy, cranky
Questions & Answers about Huysuz olmasına karşın çok vurdumduymazdı.
How exactly does olmasına karşın mean "despite being"?
The postposition karşın (despite) requires the dative case. To say "despite being", we turn the verb olmak into a noun using the suffix -ma. Then we add the 3rd-person possessive -sı (his/her), the buffer consonant -n, and the dative suffix -a. So olmasına karşın literally translates to "to his/her being, despite."
Could I use rağmen instead of karşın here?
Yes, absolutely. Karşın and rağmen mean exactly the same thing and both take the dative case. Rağmen is generally more common in everyday spoken Turkish, while karşın can sound slightly more formal or literary, but they are fully interchangeable.
The word vurdumduymazdı is quite long. How is it formed?
Vurdumduymaz is a fantastic compound adjective meaning "insensitive" or "callous." It's made by smashing two conjugated verbs together: vurdum (I hit) and duymaz (he/she doesn't hear or feel). It vividly describes someone who wouldn't even notice if you hit them! The -dı at the very end is just the past tense copula meaning "he/she was".
There is no pronoun like onun or o here. How do we know who we are talking about?