Abstract We investigated the mechanism of the reaction of paraformaldehyde with phosphorus trichloride in the presence of carboxylic acids (acetic, propanoic, and formic). Our results revealed that bisphosphonic acids were obtained without the use of water. The structures of the reaction products were studied by 1D and 2D homonuclear and heteronuclear 1H-, 13C-, 31P- NMR spectroscopy. [Supplementary