German is in with touts (5)
I believe the answer is:
plugs
'touts' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with communicating as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'german is in with' is the wordplay.
'german' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'is in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'with' becomes 'plus'.
'g' inserted into 'plus' is 'PLUGS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plugs that I've seen before include "Electrical connectors" , "Wads, of tobacco say" , "stoppers" , "Advertisements" , "They'll stop" .)