A system and methods for matching at least one word of an utterance against a set of template hierarchies to select the best matching template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. The system and methods determines at least one exact, inexact, and partial match between the at least one word of the utterance and at least one term within the template hierarchy to select and populate a template or set of templates corresponding to the utterance. The populated template or set of templates may then be used to generate a narrative template or a report template.