à la (au) or pour

In the tests, I keep mixing up the answer: "pour la cathèdrale" with "à la cathèdrale." I assume "pour" really does translate to "for" even though the translation in the lesson shows as "to the." This is in lesson 3.4 - Going on the Tram. Confused.

Bonjour Julia, I understand where your confusion is coming from. In French when we talk about ourselves physically going somewhere we use "à la", for example, 'je vais aller à la bibliothèque' (I am going to the library). However, if we are talking a form of transport and are referring to a specific route to somewhere, then we often use "pour", for example, 'je prends quelle ligne pour la bibliotèque?' (Which line do I take for the library?). Normally, we would say 'which line do I take to get to the library? Therefore, 'pour' can in some cases be translated as 'to get to'. I hope this has cleared this up for you :) - Marie-Claire

when do we use au in french?

@bruce a17: That's a pretty broad question, and I'm not sure if you're asking the question in the context of "à..." destination that the earlier question was asking. If so, "au" is the form for: à + le [masculine singular noun, not beginning with a vowel].