Kochetkov's extensive investigations of glycosyl orthoester and their analogs as glycosyl donors revealed that the alkyl derivatives were plagued by competition between the departing alcohol and the incoming acceptor. n-Pentenyl orthoesters (NPOEs) obviate competition by sequestering the departing pentenyl alcohol as a 2-halomethyl tetrahydrofuran. Exquisitely regioselective glycosidations of diol acceptors can be carried out with NPOEs triggered specifically with Yb(OTf)(3)/NIS. However with Sc(OTf)(3), double glycosidation is the major reaction. manno, gluco and galacto NPOEs have been investigated. The latter two, which require a different experimental procedure for the manno counterpart, also give an excellent regioselectivity with Yb(OTf)(3), but the yields are much lower than with manno.