Twelve para‐ and meta‐substituted benzhydroxamic acids were subjected to exhaustive silylation with N‐(tert‐butyldimethylsilyl)‐N‐methyltrifluoroacetamide (with 1% of tert‐butyldimethylsilyl chloride as a catalyst). In all cases only one product was isolated. According to the assigned NMR spectra (13C, 15N, and 29Si), the product is the Z‐O1, O4‐bis(tert‐butyldimethylsilyl) derivative of substituted benzhydroximic acid, independently of the nature of the para or meta substituent. For structure determination, the 29Si shifts and 1J(13C, 13CN) coupling constants are decisive. The chemical shifts (13C, 15N, 29Si) show dependences on the substituent constants of various kinds: even the 13C shift of the sixth atom from the benzene ring varies with substitution. The 13C and 15N chemical shifts of the CN moiety exhibit opposite dependences on the substituent; the 29Si shifts of the two silicon atoms are almost equally sensitive to the substituent effects despite their different distances from the substituent. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.