begin vs lead up to

begin

verb
  • To start, to initiate or take the first step into something. 

  • To come into existence. 

  • To be in the first stage of some situation 

noun
  • Beginning; start. 

lead up to

verb
  • To follow or mark a path toward. 

  • To set in motion; to act as a causal or preparatory event or sequence of events. 

  • To precede in time. 

How often have the words begin and lead up to occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )