Be more becoming than that?

[Torsten]

Hi, when I google the phrase "be more becoming than that" I get only one result. However, I heard this expression on an audio tape by Napoleon Hill. Obviously, not many people are more becoming than that or is that the phrase itself is rather unusual?
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Conchita]

Dropping the 'be', you can get quite a few results, though. As far as I know, the term 'becoming' normally refers to things and tends to be replaced by words like 'suitable' or 'attractive' nowadays. You're more likely to hear 'her dress suits her very well' than 'her dress is very becoming'. But maybe the word is used more often than I think. I'd be curious to know.

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten.

I'd be interested in knowing the whole sentence. It's often hard to judge things based only on sentence fragments.

I wouldn't find it at all unusual if someone used becoming as an adjective (as seems to be the case in your example). But it's also not a word I'd expect to hear every single day.

The adjective unbecoming (meaning inappropriate) is probably used more frequently.

Expanding on Conchita's examples, I'd expect to hear sentences such as:

That dress is more becoming on you than the other one.
Your new hair style is very becoming.
Language like that is unbecoming for young ladies with good manners!

(I think my mother may have said that last sentence to me a couple times when I was a kid.)

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Jamie (K)]

[Yankee]

Hi Jamie

I used the prepostion on in the sense that the dress is "on you" and it is "on you that it looks good"

In my opinion, on doesn't sound weird in the least. In fact, to sounds not only weird to me in that context (the dress), but extraordinarily weird.

I think the choice of preposition is very dependent on the context.

[Jamie (K)]

I've had this discussion with another American before. Becoming on sounds like low-grade non-standard English to me. You certainly wouldn't say, "conduct unbecoming on an officer," I hope.

A Google search gives me almost three times as many hits for "becoming to her" as for "becoming on her". In addition, if you examine the results (also changing the pronouns), you find that the texts with "becoming to" are from more literate or literary sources, and the "becoming on" are colloquial.

[Yankee]