Very early form of cocaine belonging to French? (5,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
crack of dawn
'very early form' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'cocaine belonging to french?' is the wordplay.
'cocaine' becomes 'crack' (crack is a kind of cocaine).
'belonging to' becomes 'of' (I've seen this in other clues).
'french?' becomes 'dawn' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'crack'+'of'+'dawn'='CRACK OF DAWN'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for crack of dawn that I've seen is " First light".)