A newspaper includes odd pieces in French to impress (6)
I believe the answer is:
affect
'to impress' is the definition.
(synonyms)
I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for affect that I've seen before include "Put on" , "Arouse sadness or sympathy like tear-jerker" , "Impact, have a bearing on" , "Have impact on or arouse sadness in" , "Assume" .)