A French object joins small items (5)
I believe the answer is:
units
'items' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a french object joins small' is the wordplay.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'object' becomes 'it' (pronoun for an inanimate object).
'joins' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'un'+'it'+'s'='UNITS'
(Other definitions for units that I've seen before include "Single items or standard quantities" , "Single parts of a whole" , "Modules" , "Single things" , "Individual things as parts of a whole" .)