Does “supporter” mean “to support” in French?

Supporter normally means to bear or put up with something: elle a tout supporté is “she put up with all of it.” The word leans towards strain rather than encouragement, which is why je ne le supporte pas means “I can’t stand him.” For the English sense — backing someone with help, money or encouragement — French uses soutenir: je soutiens ma famille.

There is one place the two languages do line up, and it is sport: supporter le PSG is to support the team, and un supporter is a fan — that noun having been borrowed from English and kept its English sense. Everywhere else, saying je supporte ma famille tells French speakers you barely tolerate them.