Kinetics studies with structurally varied aldehydes and ketones in aqueous buffer at pH 7.4 reveal that carbonyl compounds with neighboring acid/base groups form hydrazones at accelerated rates. Similarly, tests of a hydrazine with a neighboring carboxylic acid group show that it also reacts at an accelerated rate. Rate constants for the fastest carbonyl/hydrazine combinations are 2-20 M-1 s(-1), which is faster than recent strain-promoted cycloaddition reactions.