Yasiel Puig Plays for Toronto Maple Leafs

🕒 The 'Then' and 'Now' Shift

Look at how the story changes from the past to the present. This is the secret to moving from A1 to A2.

The Past (Finished)

• Played (He played in Mexico)
• Won (His team won)
• Was (He was a good player)

The Present (Current)

• Has (He has problems)
• Says (A judge says)
• Is (Puig is a great player)

Quick Rule: When talking about 2013 $\rightarrow$ use -ed words (played). When talking about today $\rightarrow$ use -s words (says/has).

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Key Words for Money & Law

• Owes $\rightarrow$ You must pay this money back.
• Contract $\rightarrow$ A legal paper for a job.
• Court $\rightarrow$ The place where a judge speaks.

🚀 Level Up: From 'Saying' to 'Asserting'

At the A2 level, you likely use the word "said" for everything. To reach B2, you need to describe how someone speaks and why they are speaking. This is called Reporting Verbs.

Look at the CEO in the text. He didn't just "say" things; he used specific intentions:

• "Stein asserted that..." $\rightarrow$ He spoke with strong confidence. He isn't guessing; he is stating a fact.
• "...and argued that..." $\rightarrow$ He is giving reasons to persuade others that Puig is a good choice.

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🛠️ The B2 Upgrade Map

Instead of using said or told, try these based on the speaker's mood:

If the speaker is...	Use this B2 Verb	Example from the text/context
Confident	Assert	Stein asserted that the background check was thorough.
Persuasive	Argue	He argued that Puig is moving in a positive direction.
Revealing	Report	It is reportedly the largest contract in history.

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⚠️ The Grammar Pivot: The "That" Bridge

Notice the pattern: [Person] + [B2 Verb] + that + [Full Sentence].

• A2 style: "He said he is good." (Simple, basic)
• B2 style: "The CEO asserted that the player deserves a second chance." (Precise, professional)

Pro Tip: In B2 English, using "that" after these verbs makes your writing feel more academic and structured. When you move from saying to asserting, you stop sounding like a student and start sounding like a professional.

The Art of "Nominalization" and the Architecture of Formalism

To move from B2 (functional fluency) to C2 (mastery), one must shift from action-oriented language to concept-oriented language. This article is a goldmine of Nominalization—the process of turning verbs (actions) and adjectives (descriptions) into nouns (entities).

◈ The Linguistic Pivot

B2 students describe events; C2 speakers describe phenomena.

B2 Approach (Verbal/Active)	C2 Approach (Nominalized/Static)
Puig started his time with...	...Commences Tenure with...
The team bought him...	The strategic acquisition of...
He is being judged...	...subject to significant legal scrutiny
He is on a better path...	...on a positive personal trajectory

◈ Why this defines C2 Mastery

Nominalization allows the writer to pack complex information into a single noun phrase, creating a sense of objective distance and academic authority.

Take the phrase: "The strategic acquisition of a high-profile athlete is viewed as a mechanism to enhance the league's visibility."

If written in B2 English, this would be: "They strategically bought a famous player because they think it will help more people see the league."

The C2 shift achieves three things:

1. Abstraction: It transforms a business transaction into a "mechanism."
2. Density: It removes the need for multiple clauses by using compound nouns (institutional credibility, judicial outcome).
3. Nuance: It replaces emotional verbs (think, help) with precise, formal counterparts (viewed as, enhance).

◈ Syntactic Sophistication: The "Adverbial-Adjective" Bridge

Note the use of "Concurrent with his athletic return." A B2 learner would likely use "At the same time as..." The use of an adjective as a prepositional bridge (Concurrent with) is a hallmark of high-level legal and journalistic prose, stripping away the narrative and replacing it with a structural relationship between two facts.