The peculiarities of the Ukrainian translation of verbs that introduce direct speech in the texts of works of British fiction are clarified in the article. The texts of the Ukrainian translations of Jonathan Stroud’s «Lockwood & Co.» series of novels are analyzed by the author. It was found out that the problem of semantic and stylistic interpretation of direct speech and the selection of verbs that introduce direct speech when translating English works of fiction into Ukrainian is a constantly relevant one and causes active discussions among translation experts, linguists and critics. In particular, there are significant differences in the opinions of scientists regarding the expediency and legality of using lexical substitutions to specify verbs when translating into Ukrainian. While some researchers believe that translators do not sufficiently use the synonymous variety of the Ukrainian language in order to diversify it and emphasize the artistic text, other translation experts and critics are convinced that such translation substitutions are unacceptable changes to the original artistic text and demonstrate an incorrect the translator’s approach to their work. Thus, translation techniques, which some scholars consider to be successful and creative tools that help to align the original text with the norms of Ukrainian stylistics, others consider to be a serious violation and unlawful distortion of the original author’s artistic work. It has been proved that the second approach is typical for researchers from Western countries, which is largely caused by the peculiarities of cultures and, as a result, is reflected in the norms of western European languages.