1. A method for determining a plurality of hypothetical matches to a spoken input, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: detecting subword units in the spoken input to generate a first set of hypothetical matches to the spoken input; detecting words in the spoken input to generate a second set of hypothetical matches to the spoken input; and combining the first set of hypothetical matches with the second set of hypothetical matches to produce a combined set of hypothetical matches to the spoken input, the combined set having a predefined number of hypothetical matches.