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An Italian restaurant chain is giving UK customers 25% off their bills next week if they say one phrase.

Carluccio's, which was rescued from administration in 2020, is rewarding customers who ask for their bill in Italian with a huge discount for a limited time only. Customers simply need to request their bill by saying "il conto, per favore", which means "the bill, please" to receive the 25% off when dining in the restaurant between Monday, November 3 and Sunday, November 9.

The offer is available at Carluccio's restaurants nationwide and comes as part of a collaboration with language learning app Preply.

The scheme aims to help people feel more confident speaking a foreign language out loud by turning one small act of bravery into a reward.

It comes after a Preply survey of 1,200 Brits found that almost half (49%) of UK adults feel embarrassed that they cannot speak another language, while one in five lack confidence when trying to pronounce foreign words.

According to Preply, confidence is the biggest barrier to language progress, with 63% of its current learners saying it's the skill they most want to improve.

Experts at Preply say restaurants are one of the most common places when confidence in trying new words disappears, with more than half of Brits admitting to pointing at the menu instead of pronouncing words out loud.

Anna Pyshna, spokesperson at Preply, said: "People may know how to say gnocchi in theory, but when the waiter's standing there, confidence can vanish. We want to show that getting things wrong is part of learning and sometimes, even worth a discount.

"By turning a simple phrase into a real-world reward, we're helping people take that first, brave step to speak up. It's a reminder that the language learning process doesn't start with perfection, it starts with the willingness to try."

To receive the 25%, diners simply need to request the bill using the Italian phrase "il conto, per favore" in Carluccio's restaurants between November 3 and 9.

The discount only applies to customers who are eating in the restaurant, not takeaway orders, and it cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

The 25% off the total bill is not available in Airports, Marriott's, Sainsbury's and Tesco.