# Sweet City Woman by Stampeders whats the French mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2014, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007 "2014-04-13T09:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/1 "2014-04-13T09:18:10Z")
[lyrics](http://lyrics.wikia.com/Gracenote:Stampeders:Sweet_City_Woman) bon ci, bon,bon bon, ci bon,bon bon I don’t speakee dee French. 😉 What does that mean? heres the youtube. great song. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0IRjl3SWC2U/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AGmA4AC4AKKAgwIABABGH8gVCgjMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCmaINl7sXyOBg4_f2LEsvxF0aPvA "The Stampeders - Sweet City Woman") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IRjl3SWC2U) ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/2 "2014-04-13T09:37:08Z")
“Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/3 "2014-04-13T13:10:00Z")
two words have that much meaning? ci and bon? I guess it’s French. Sounds like it. The Stampeders were Canadian and some regions speak French. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/4 "2014-04-13T13:51:13Z")
**Penfeather** was joking (referring to “Lady Marmalade”). The words in SCW just mean “Good, so good, good, good, so good,” etc. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/5 "2014-04-13T14:12:09Z")
Wouldn’t “si bon” mean “so good” rather than “ci bon”? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/6 "2014-04-13T14:30:14Z")
Now I’m listening to other songs by the Stampeders and fast becoming a fan. _Minstrel Gypsy_ and _Carry Me_ are going on my road music CD. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/7 "2014-04-13T16:16:29Z")
It actually “bon. C’est bon”. Which means "good. It’s good. Love that tune. “Like a country morning, all smothered in dew, she’s got a way of making a man feel shiny and new” ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/8 "2014-04-13T17:54:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > …_Carry Me_… The guitar in that song makes life worth living. And I’m only being slightly hyperbolic. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/9 "2014-04-13T19:04:03Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Now I’m listening to other songs by the Stampeders and fast becoming a fan. _Minstrel Gypsy_ and _Carry Me_ are going on my road music CD. The Top 40 station I was working at the time played one of their follow-up singles, “Wild Eyes,” for some time…even though it never caught on in the States. Great song, and could hardly be more different from “Sweet City Woman.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/10 "2014-04-13T19:42:31Z")
thank you. 🙂 Another mystery solved. Even the lyric site had it spelled wrong. > [@CarnalK](#): > > It actually “bon. C’est bon”. Which means "good. It’s good. > > Love that tune. > > “Like a country morning, all smothered in dew, she’s got a way of making a man feel shiny and new” ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/11 "2014-04-13T20:29:45Z")
No probs! For the the record “si” means “if” in French. “ci” kind of means “this” but doesn’t quite fit here because it’s generally used in conjunction with some form of “celui/celle/cette”. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/12 "2014-04-13T20:40:09Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > No probs! For the the record “si” means “if” in French. [It means a lot of things.](http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/si.htm) There’s a famous song called [“C’est si bon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C'est_si_bon), for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/13 "2014-04-13T20:45:15Z")
[From their website](http://stampeders.net/), it looks like the Stampeders are still together, and still touring. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/14 "2014-04-13T21:26:38Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > bon ci, bon,bon bon, ci bon,bon bon > [@Penfeather](#): > > “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”. > [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > **Penfeather** was joking (referring to “Lady Marmalade”). No, it does mean that. You never saw the Monty Python skit “Would you like to go back to my place, bon ci, bon ci”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/15 "2014-04-13T21:34:50Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > [It means a lot of things.](http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/si.htm)here’s a famous song called [“C’est si bon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C'est_si_bon), for instance. I’m not a fluent speaker so though I’m sure I’ve seen those other uses they just didn’t occur to me. I am pretty positive they are saying “c’est” in the song though. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-city-woman-by-stampeders-whats-the-french-mean/686007/16 "2014-04-13T21:42:43Z")
Wait– It’s not “Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy”? Ooooooh… This makes much more sense.