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Wij zijn voor de pasfoto naar het stadhuis gelopen.

Wij zijn voor de pasfoto naar het stadhuis gelopen.
We walked to the city hall for the passport photo.
From Lesson 223:Perfect tense auxiliaries for motion (hebben / zijn)·Dutch

Questions & Answers about Wij zijn voor de pasfoto naar het stadhuis gelopen.

Why do we use zijn instead of hebben with the verb lopen here?
This is the core rule for verbs of motion! Because the sentence specifies a clear destination (naar het stadhuis), you must use zijn to form the perfect tense. If you were just talking about the activity of walking without a specific destination (like 'We walked in the park'), you would use hebben.
Why is the order voor de pasfoto naar het stadhuis and not the other way around?
In Dutch, the destination of a motion (naar het stadhuis) is placed as late in the sentence as possible, usually right before the past participle (gelopen) at the very end. The reason for the trip (voor de pasfoto) naturally comes before it.
Could I say om de pasfoto instead of voor de pasfoto?
No, when you go somewhere to get a physical object, you use the preposition voor. You would only use om if you included an action verb, using the om ... te structure (for example: om een pasfoto te maken).
I know stad means city, but why is it a het word here (het stadhuis)?
In Dutch compound words, the article is always determined by the very last part of the word. Since huis is a het word (het huis), the compound stadhuis also takes het, even though stad on its own is a de word (de stad).

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