The article discusses different scenarios of verbal confrontation, actualized by a group of speech verbs, namely verbs of contradiction. The situation of verbal confrontation is viewed as a particular type of communication, which has a complex conceptual scheme and can develop in the form of three different scenarios: dispute, discussion and conflict. The choice of the scenario depends on a social background, communicative and language skills of speakers and takes place at the stage of opinion verbalization in the form of statements – stimuli and statements – reactions (initial and respondent statements). Depending on the structure and complexity of the argumentation act, which is actualized by the use of the verb of contradiction, there develops one of the three scenarios.