Examples of the ability of the donor-functionalised amide ligands N-(2-methoxyphenyl)-N-(trimethylsilyl)amide (L¹) and N-(2-phenoxyphenyl)-N-(trimethylsilyl)amide (L²) to support mixed-ligand lanthanoid complexes of the type [Ln(L)₂A] or [Ln(L)AB] are described. Reaction of [Yb(OAr)₃] (Ar = C₆H₃Bu^t₂-2,6) with two equivalents of [Li(L²)]_n in hexane gave hexane-soluble, monomeric and five-coordinate [Yb(L²)₂(OAr)] (1) in high yield. Attempted preparation of an analogous [Yb(L¹)₂(MeCp)] complex by reaction of [Yb(MeCp)Cl₂(thf)] with [Li(L¹)(OEt₂)]₂ (with a Yb ∶ Li ratio of 1 ∶ 2) in thf instead gave the known [Yb(L¹)₂(μ-Cl)]₂ (2). In contrast, the stable complexes [Yb(MeCp)(L¹)(μ-Cl)]₂ (3) and [Yb(MeCp)(L²)(μ-Cl)]₂ (4) were readily obtained from 1 ∶ 1 (Li ∶ Yb) reaction of [Yb(MeCp)Cl₂(thf)] with [Li(L¹)(OEt₂)]₂ or [Li(L²)(dme)] in thf. The complexes 1, 3 and 4 have been characterised by X-ray structure determination.