How To Translate To Support In French

I’m going to take examples to explain how to translate to support in French.

Supporter Vs Soutenir – to Support in French

• Le père soutient la bicyclette et il soutient son fils moralement. Il ne supporte pas l’idée qu’il puisse tomber.
  The father holds the bike and supports his son. He cannot stand the idea that he may fall.

1 – Supporter and Soutenir With Things – to Support as in to Hold Together

With things, both supporter and soutenir – to support in French – have the idea to help a structure, to hold it in some sort.

• Il a mis un morceau de bois sous la branche pleine de pommes pour la soutenir.
  He put a piece of wood under the branch full of apples to support it.

Supporter is a bit stronger than soutenir since the root verb is porter= to carry, versus tenir = to hold…

But they are almost similar in that meaning, and more or less interchangeable.

• Cette poutre supporte tout le poids de la baignoire.
  This beam supports all the weight of the bathtub.

2 – Supporter and Soutenir With People – to Support Someone ≠ to (not) stand someone

Soutenir has a positive meaning: it’s to support someone as in to encourage someone, or help them mentally, physically and often financially.

• Je soutiens l’équipe de France
  I support the French team
• C’est son père qui le soutient financièrement
  His Dad supports him financially.

Supporter has a negative meaning: we use it mostly to say “I can’t stand it”

• Il ne supporte plus son voisin
  He can no longer stand his neighbor
• La douleur n’est pas supportable
  The pain is unbearable

3 – Un Soutien is For Moral / School Help in French

Un soutien is the noun derived from soutenir.

• Sa présence m’est d’un grand soutien
  His presence is a huge moral help to me.
• Il a besoin d’un soutien scolaire
  He needs help with school

That’s where the word “un soutien-gorge”, a bras comes from. The gorge in old French was not just the throat, but the whole chest area. So it literally meant “hold the chest”.

Watch out with the word “un souteneur” which is a used for a pimp in French!

4 – How do You Say Fan and Supporter in French?

As far as I know, there is no French word for fan. We use English terms :

1. un fan, une fan (no e, the spelling doesn’t change)
2. un supporter (always in the masculine)
3. un supporteur, une supportrice (which comes directly for supporter and to support, and made into a French word. But we don’t use it very often)

You may be interested in my French sports article.

5 – Supporter – A Common Anglicism

Unfortunately, it’s a common anglicism  to nowadays use “supporter” + team, because of the word “un supporter de foot” – a soccer fan… So you’ll hear French people say “je supporte l’équipe des Bleus”… But it’s a mistake.

The correct French verb to use here would be “soutenir”, or “encourager”: “je soutiens / j’encourage l’équipe des Bleus””.

If you enjoy learning French in context, check out French Today’s downloadable French audiobooks: French Today’s bilingual novels are recorded at different speeds and enunciation, and focus on today’s modern glided pronunciation. 

Did you enjoy this article? French Today is a 2 person company! Please encourage us to do more. Share, press like. or leave a comment!

You’ll find exclusive mini lessons, tips, pictures and more daily on French Today’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest pages – so join me there!