Test results show that New Yorkers can’t spell ‘write’ because we rely too much on spell check! Click below to read more about this.

Melissa Nash

Spell-check is turning New Yorkers into dummies.

But we’re not alone in our growing ignorance.

In Britain, birthplace of the English language, 2,000 adults recently were given a simple spelling test by a charitable outfit called Mencap — and told they could not cheat by consulting their computers or smartphones.

A third could not spell the words “definitely” and “separate.” Two-thirds got the spelling of “necessary” wrong.

And hundreds were unable to use the words “there” and “it’s” correctly in a sentence.

“Many Britons have a false impression about their spelling ability,” said Mencap chief Mark Goldring.

So do many New Yorkers. We gave the same test to 25 city residents of various ages Tuesday — and results were similar.

The nine who got all the questions right tended to be older, female, and less reliant on electronic spelling aids like auto-correct.

“I don’t think I’m even using auto-correct,” said Abby Cohen, 52, of Queens, as she studied her iPhone. “Where is it?”

Andrew Jones, who got four out of five right, said auto-correct makes the mind lazy.

“Absolutely, without a doubt, it hurts spelling,” said Jones, 25, of Manhattan. “If you don’t spell it, you don’t know it.”

Alisha Jones, who got three out of the five questions right, admitted her phone has become her spelling crutch.

“It definitely makes me a worse speller,” said Jones, 22, of Brooklyn. “It’s horrible.”

Jessica McArdle, who got just one answer right, said she too is an auto-correct addict.

“I use it all the time,” said McArdle, 27, of Manhattan. “My emails for work are always auto-corrected so much. I would sound stupid if I turned it off.”

Before spell-check was invented, people relied on rote memorization — or time-worn phrases designed to aid spelling like, “I before E, except after C or when sounded as A, as in neighbor or weigh.”

Now people increasingly rely on technology rather than tap what they should have learned in grade school, experts say.

“I see this more and more with my students trusting technology to spell their words for them,” said Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the University of Pittsburgh.

Spell-check, he agreed, is doing to spelling what the automatic transmission has done to operating a five-speed — making it a vanishing skill.

“Part of it is laziness, part of it is that the technology makes spelling easier,” he said.