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Ese aprendiz ha llegado a ser un gran empresario.

Ese aprendiz ha llegado a ser un gran empresario.
That apprentice has become a great entrepreneur.
From Lesson 379:Gradual change (llegar a ser)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Ese aprendiz ha llegado a ser un gran empresario.

Why is llegar a ser used here instead of another verb of change like hacerse?
Llegar a ser is the perfect choice here because it highlights a gradual, long-term change that requires effort and leads to a significant or successful outcome. While hacerse is also used for professions, llegar a ser specifically emphasizes the culmination of the difficult journey from apprentice to entrepreneur.
Why does the sentence use un gran empresario instead of un grande empresario?
The adjective grande drops its final syllable and becomes gran whenever it is placed directly before any singular noun. This rule applies regardless of whether the noun is masculine or feminine.
Does putting gran before the noun change its meaning?
Yes! When placed before the noun, gran means 'great' in a figurative sense, such as impressive or highly successful. If it were placed after the noun, as in un empresario grande, it would literally mean a physically large entrepreneur.
Why use the present perfect (ha llegado) instead of the preterite (llegó)?
In Spain, the present perfect is frequently used to talk about past actions that have a strong connection to the present. The speaker uses ha llegado because the person's status as a great entrepreneur is their current, ongoing reality as a direct result of that past effort.

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