Short-chain phospholipids are extremely useful compounds for analysis of interfacial and substrate requirements of water-soluble phospholipases. A wide variety of PCs are easily prepared and can be characterized in detail to the point where at a given PC concentration, the micelle size distribution is known, and an area per head group can be estimated. Since they can be presented to enzymes as monomers, micelles, or in bilayer structures, short-chain phospholipids are ideal for examining kinetic preferences of lipolytic enzymes. In the future detailed studies of short-chain phospholipids with different head groups should facilitate kinetics with phospholipases which show a preference for anionic substrates.