Hard to find English active around us (7)
I believe the answer is:
elusive
'hard to find' is the definition.
(something elusive is hard to find)
'english active around us' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'active' becomes 'live' (similar in meaning).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'live' enclosing 'us' is 'lusive'.
'e'+'lusive'='ELUSIVE'
(Other definitions for elusive that I've seen before include "Evil use (anag.)" , "Sue about Levi, being shifty" , "Difficult to grasp" , "Vile sue is hard to catch" , "Hard to pin down, slippery" .)