Pounced on the French assistant to return tacky merchandise (5,2)
I believe the answer is:
leapt at
'french assistant to return tacky merchandise' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'pounced on the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'on' could be 'at' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'at' is present in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'leap' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?