The secondary phosphine oxides are known to exist in equilibrium between the pentavalent phosphine oxides (SPO) and the trivalent phosphinous acids (PA). This equilibrium can be displaced in favour of the trivalent tautomeric form upon coordination to late transition metals. This tutorial review provides the state of the art of the use of secondary phosphine oxides as pre-ligands in transition metal-catalysed reactions. Using a combination of SPOs and several metals such as Pd, Pt, Ru, Rh and Au, a series of effective and original transformations have been obtained and will be discussed here.