Abstract: A method and system of recognizing speech based in part on an observation that a speaker naturally pauses and speaks smaller subgroups of speech units or digits that form part of a complete longer speech sequence. In the method, subgroups of speech units are processed by the system between a human's natural pauses. This pause is detected by the system and the subgroup is processed in order to provide a recognition result, which is a best representation of the input subgroup. The recognition result is immediately repeated back to the user for verification. The user is prompted to repeat a subgroup for re-recognition and re-verification if a rejection criteria is met; otherwise the processing steps are repeated for remaining subgroups until it has been determined that the complete speech sequence has been accurately recognized.