Provided are an apparatus and method for recognizing voice commands, the apparatus including: a voice command recognition unit which recognizes an input voice command; a voice command recognition learning unit which learns a recognition-targeted voice command; and a controller which controls the voice command recognition unit to recognize the recognition-targeted voice command from an input voice command, controls the voice command recognition learning unit to learn the input voice command if the voice command recognition is unsuccessful, and performs a particular operation corresponding to the recognized voice command if the voice command recognition is successful.