Dissolution of [(CH(3))N](2)Na[MnN(CN)(5)]·H(2)O in water results in the rapid dissociation of the trans-CN(-) ligand to form trans-[MnN(H(2)O)(CN)(4)](2-)(aq), which reacts with monodentate pyridine ligands such as 3-methyl and 4-methyl pyridine to form the corresponding mono-substituted complexes, of which the molecular structures obtained from X-ray crystallography, trans-[MnN(3-pic)(CN)(4)](2-) and trans-[MnN(4-pic)(CN)(4)](2-), are reported. [MnN(H(2)O)(CN)(4)](2-)(aq) also reacts with bidentate nucleophiles such as pyridine-2-carboxylate (pico) and quinoline-2-carboxylate (quino), yielding the corresponding [MnN(η(2)-pico)(CN)(3)](2-) and [MnN(η(2)-quino)(CN)(3)](2-) complexes as determined by X-ray crystallography. The formation kinetics of pyridine-2-carboxylate and three different pyridine-2,x-dicarboxylate ligands (x = 3, 4, 5) are reported, and two consecutive reaction steps are proposed, defined as the formation of the [MnN(η(1)-pico)(CN)(4)](3-) and [MnN(η(2)-pico)(CN)(3)](3-) complexes, respectively. Only the second steps could be spectrophotometrically observed and kinetically investigated. The first reaction is attributed to the rapid aqua substitution of [MnN(H(2)O)(CN)(4)](2-), thermodynamically unfavored and too fast to observe by conventional rapid third generation stopped-flow techniques. The second, slower reaction is attributed to cyanido substitution, with overall formation rate constants (25 °C; k(1)'; M(-1) s(-1)) and corresponding activation parameters (ΔH(k1')(double dagger), kJ mol(-1), ΔS(k1')(double dagger), J K(-1) mol(-1)) for the following entering bidentate nucleophiles: pyridine-2-carboxylate: (1.15 ± 0.04) × 10(-3), 102 ± 1, and 48 ± 3; pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylate: (1.1 ± 0.1) × 10(-3), 93 ± 2, and 20 ± 4; pyridine-2,4-dicarboxylate (8.5 ± 0.5) × 10(-4), 123 ± 5, and 115 ± 14; pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylate: (1.08 ± 0.04) × 10(-3), 106 ± 1, and 60 ± 2. A dissociative activation for the cyanido substitution process is proposed.