A user adaptive speech recognition method and apparatus is disclosed that controls user confirmation of a recognition candidate using a new threshold value adapted to a user. The user adaptive speech recognition method includes calculating a confidence score of a recognition candidate according to the result of speech recognition, setting a new threshold value adapted to the user based on a result of user confirmation of the recognition candidate and the confidence score of the recognition candidate, and outputting a corresponding recognition candidate as a result of the speech recognition if the calculated confidence score is higher than the new threshold value. Thus, the need for user confirmation of the result of speech recognition is reduced and the probability of speech recognition success is increased.