The following system of Russian transliteration was developed by the United States Library of Congress.
| Spelling | Sound |
|---|---|
| a | a as in father |
| b | b as in boy |
| ch | ch as in cheese |
| d | d as in devil |
| e | ye as in yellow sometimes (confusingly) yo as in yodel |
| f | f as in fairy tales |
| g | g as in good |
| i | ee as in feed after vowels may alternatively (and confusingly) spell y as in boy |
| ia | ya as in yard |
| iu | you as in you |
| k | k as in koala |
| kh | ch as in Bach |
| l | l as in lily |
| m | m as in mother |
| n | n as in noodle |
| o | o as in omega when unstressed pronounced like u as in nuts |
| p | p as in potato |
| r | r as in Russia |
| s | s as in spirit |
| sh | sh as in short |
| shch | st as in Christian |
| t | t as in table |
| ts | ts as in its |
| u | u as in tulip |
| v | v as in vodka |
| y | not found in English; like u as in tulip, but without lip-rounding |
| z | z as in zebra |
| zh | z as in azure |
| ′ | no sound by itself; indicates that a preceding consonant has a slight y-like quality |
| ″ | usually no sound |
Note: The pronunciations are only approximate for two reasons. First, some Russian sounds do not occur naturally in English. Second, Russian letters may change their pronunciation depending on their position in a word and, especially, on the place of stress. A transliteration system, such as the Library of Congress one, maintains a consistent correspondence between Russian and Latin letters, irrespective of sound.