A system and method of controlling an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system includes: receiving speech at the ASR system from a vehicle occupant that includes a command to control a vehicle function; identifying a gate command from the speech; associating the identified gate command with the command to control the vehicle function; storing the associated gate command and vehicle command in a database; receiving additional speech at the ASR system from the vehicle occupant; detecting the gate command in the additional speech; and accessing the stored gate command and vehicle command from the database.