Aún así o aun así

Question

"Ella ha roto con él pero ________ así él sigue insistiendo.

She broke up with him but even so he keeps trying.

The quiz answer is aun así. But why can’t it be aún así in the sense of todavía? She broke up with him but he still keeps trying.

Accepted Answer

Hola Gennady
In this sentence that meaning of "still" would work because if you read again the whole sentence:

Ella ha roto con él pero aun así él sigue insistiendo.
She broke up with him but even so he keeps trying.

If you replace it with just "aún": "Ella ha roto con él pero él aún sigue insistiendo". This means as you said "... but he still keeps trying", but you still have in the text the word "... así" which would make this meaning of "still" not valid anymore. The combination of "aún así" with the accent on aún can only mean as we said at the end of the lesson "still like that". The sentence we give as an example is:

Tenemos que irnos ya y tú estás aún así, sin vestir ni maquillar.
We need to go now and you are still like that, undressed and with no make-up.

I hope it clarifies it.
Saludos
Inma