The MNDO calculations were performed on the various rotamers of N-methyl formamide, N,N-dimethyl formamide, N-methyl acetamide, and N,N-dimethylacetamide in order to investigate the contribution of the one-electron and the steric effect on their rotational barriers about the C-N bond. Results show that while the conformational stabilities of formamides depend mainly on the one-electron factor, those of acetamides depend mainly on the steric factor. According to results obtained by calculations on the rotational barriers about C-N bond, for N-monosubstituted amides the steric effect is larger in the rotational ground state than in the transition state and for N,N-disubstituted amides the steric effect is larger in the rotational transition state.