Learn Hardcore French: Paul trouve beaucoup de soutien chez sa meilleure amie. - Paul finds a lot of support from his best friend.

It’s not about literally discovering something, but more about experiencing / getting emotional support. This figurative use of trouver is very common in French.

Why is it beaucoup de soutien and not beaucoup du soutien?

After beaucoup, French almost always uses de (or d’), no matter what comes next:

beaucoup de soutien
beaucoup de travail
beaucoup d’amis

You don’t change de to du, de la, etc. So:

✅ beaucoup de soutien
❌ beaucoup du soutien (incorrect in this structure)

Why is it de soutien and not just beaucoup soutien?

In French, quantities like beaucoup, peu, assez, etc. normally need de before a noun:

beaucoup de soutien – a lot of support
peu de temps – little time
assez de patience – enough patience

You can’t drop the de:

❌ beaucoup soutien (incorrect)
✅ beaucoup de soutien (correct)

Why isn’t soutien plural here? Why not beaucoup de soutiens?

Soutien here is used as an uncountable, abstract noun, like “support” in English.

beaucoup de soutien = a lot of (emotional) support in general.

You would use the plural soutiens mainly if you were talking about separate, countable supporters or acts of support, for example:

Les soutiens de Paul se sont exprimés. – Paul’s supporters spoke out.
Il a reçu plusieurs soutiens importants. – He received several important forms of support.

In this sentence, it’s about general emotional support, so singular soutien is natural.

What does chez mean here? I learned it as “at someone’s house”.

Chez often means “at someone’s place/house,” but more broadly it means “with / from / within the environment of a person or group.”

In Paul trouve beaucoup de soutien chez sa meilleure amie, it means:

from / with his best friend

So the idea is:

Paul finds a lot of support from his best friend.

Other examples:

Je trouve du réconfort chez mes parents. – I find comfort with my parents.
C’est une tradition chez les Français. – It’s a tradition among the French / in French culture.

So chez is not only physical location; it also expresses emotional / social source or environment.

Could you say avec sa meilleure amie instead of chez sa meilleure amie?

You can say avec sa meilleure amie, but the nuance is a bit different:

chez sa meilleure amie emphasizes the source or environment:
Paul finds support from her, in the “world” of his best friend.
avec sa meilleure amie emphasizes being together with her:
Paul finds support when he is with her / in her company.

Both are understandable, but chez is more idiomatic when talking about finding support coming from a person.

Why is it sa meilleure amie and not son meilleure amie, since amie starts with a vowel?

Possessive adjectives agree with the gender and number of the noun, not with the owner:

amie is feminine singular → sa amie in theory.

Normally, French changes sa to son before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel sound to avoid awkward pronunciation:

son amie (instead of sa amie)

However, here we have an adjective in between:

sa meilleure amie

Because sa is followed by meilleure (starting with a consonant sound), there is no vowel clash, so French keeps the correct feminine form:

✅ sa meilleure amie
❌ son meilleure amie (wrong: adjective is feminine, so it needs sa)

So:

son amie
sa meilleure amie

How do we know meilleure amie is feminine? What would the masculine form be?

Amie with an -e is the feminine form of “friend”; ami (no -e) is masculine.

The adjective meilleur / meilleure also agrees in gender:

Masculine: son meilleur ami – his (or her) best (male) friend
Feminine: sa meilleure amie – his (or her) best (female) friend

In this sentence, meilleure amie tells us the best friend is female.

Why does meilleure come before amie? I thought adjectives usually come after nouns in French.

Many adjectives do come after the noun, but there is a group that usually comes before the noun, including:

Beauty: beau, joli
Age: jeune, vieux, nouveau
Number: premier, plusieurs
Goodness: bon, mauvais, meilleur
Size: grand, petit, gros

Meilleur / meilleure (better / best) is in the “goodness” group, so it typically goes before the noun:

un meilleur ami – a better friend
sa meilleure amie – his/her best friend

Can Paul trouve... mean “Paul is finding / Paul is getting...” (present continuous), or is it only simple present?

French present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous.

So Paul trouve beaucoup de soutien chez sa meilleure amie can mean:

“Paul finds a lot of support from his best friend.”
“Paul is finding / is getting a lot of support from his best friend.”

Context would decide whether it feels more like a general truth or a current situation, but the French form stays the same.