Understand German? Speak with harsh and grating tone! (5)
I believe the answer is:
grasp
'understand' is the definition.
(grasping is a kind of understanding)
'german? speak with harsh and grating tone' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'german?' could be 'g' (abbreviation) and 'g' is located in the answer.
'speak' could be 'rasp' (rasping is a kind of speaking) and 'rasp' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grasp that I've seen before include "Firmly grip" , "Hold - understanding" , "Appreciation" , "Get hold of firmly" , "Take firm hold" .)