A virtual vocabulary database is provided for use with a with a particular user database as part of a speech recognition system. Vocabulary elements within the virtual database are imported from the user database and are tagged to include numerical data corresponding to the historical use of the vocabulary element within the user database. For each speech input, potential vocabulary element matches from the speech recognition system are provided to the virtual database software which creates virtual sub-vocabularies from the criteria according to predefined criteria templates. The software then applies vocabulary element weighting adjustments according to the virtual sub-vocabulary weightings and applies the adjustment to the default weighting provided by the speech recognition system. The modified weightings are returned with the associated vocabulary elements to the speech engine for selection of an appropriate match to the input speech.