Left half done: verb + dở

After a verb, dở means it was started and not finished: xây dở (half built), đọc dở (half read), làm dở (half done). Căn nhà xây dở rồi bỏ đó mấy năm. The house was left half built for years.

With đang … thì, it says what you were in the middle of when something cut in: Em đang làm dở cái báo cáo thì cúp điện. I was halfway through the report when the power went off. Bỏ dở means to give up partway: Đừng bỏ dở giữa chừng nha. Dở dang describes anything left unfinished: công việc dở dang, unfinished work.

Careful in Saigon, where dở on its own is the everyday word for "bad": Phim này dở quá (this film is awful), Em hát dở lắm (I'm a terrible singer). So in casual talk Saigon speakers often say nửa chừng (halfway) instead: Phim dở quá, em coi nửa chừng rồi tắt. You'll hear đọc dở and ăn dở more in Hà Nội.

Xong says you got to the end: làm xong, done. Dở says you stopped before it. To finish off what's left, Saigon says làm cho xong (in Hà Nội, làm nốt). Đang and trong khi say an action was going on; dở adds that it was left in the middle.