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We investigated the importance of phonetic information in preceding syllables for the intelligibility of minimal-pair words containing /r/ or /l/. Target words were cross-spliced into a different token of the same sentence (match) or into a sentence that was identical but originally contained the paired word (mismatch). Young and old adults heard the sentences, casually or carefully spoken, in cafeteria or 12-talker babble. Matched phonetic information in the syllable immediately before the target segment, and in earlier syllables, facilitated intelligibility of r- but not l-words. Despite hearing loss, older adults also used this phonetic information.