Short articles in French and German (5)
I believe the answer is:
under
'short articles' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'french and german' is the wordplay.
'french' becomes 'er' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'german' becomes 'und' (I've seen this in other clues).
'er' put after 'und' is 'UNDER'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for under that I've seen before include "One prepared to take over from leading actor" , "Lower than" , "Subordinate to; planted with" , "Being short" , "In a state of unconsciousness" .)