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Hace diez años, mi abuelo se volvió egoísta y desconfiado.

Hace diez años, mi abuelo se volvió egoísta y desconfiado.
Ten years ago, my grandfather became selfish and distrustful.
From Lesson 221:Deep character changes (volverse)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Hace diez años, mi abuelo se volvió egoísta y desconfiado.

Why do we use se volvió here instead of a different verb of change like se puso?
The verb volverse is used for deep, lasting changes in someone's character or personality. Because the grandfather's shift to being selfish and distrustful was a permanent change in who he is, rather than a temporary mood (which would use ponerse), volverse is the perfect choice for this sentence.
Since the grandfather is male, why does the sentence use egoísta instead of egoísto?
The word egoísta belongs to a specific group of adjectives ending in -ista. These words use the exact same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. Whether you are talking about a grandfather or a grandmother, the word remains egoísta.
Why is the verb se volvió in the preterite (simple past) tense instead of the imperfect?
We use the preterite se volvió because the sentence pinpoints a specific timeframe when the change occurred or was noted as a completed turning point: hace diez años (ten years ago). We view the transformation as a completed event in the past rather than a fuzzy, ongoing background process.
How exactly does hace work to mean 'ago' in this sentence?
When you see the verb hace followed by a period of time and paired with a past tense verb, it translates to 'ago'. So hace diez años means 'ten years ago'. It literally translates to 'it makes ten years' since the event happened, which is how Spanish measures time looking backward.

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