Question 1

Why does шаг end in -у (шагу) instead of the usual prepositional ending -е?

Accepted Answer

This is the Locative case (often called the Second Prepositional). A specific group of short, usually single-syllable masculine nouns take a stressed -у or -ю ending when used with the prepositions в or на to indicate a physical location. You have likely seen this before with words like в лесу (in the forest) or на полу (on the floor).

Question 2

Literally, what does на каждом шагу translate to?

Accepted Answer

It literally means "on every step." It is a very common fixed idiom in Russian used exactly like the English phrases "at every turn" or "around every corner" to describe something that is extremely abundant or frequent.

Question 3

Is кафе singular or plural here, and why doesn't its ending change?

Accepted Answer

It translates to the plural "cafes" here, but кафе is an indeclinable loanword. Many foreign borrowings ending in vowels (like кафе, метро, кино, пальто) never change their form, regardless of their case or whether they are singular or plural. We rely entirely on the context—such as finding them "at every step"—to know it's plural.

Question 4

Why is the verb есть (are) omitted in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

While есть is used to declare that something simply exists, Russian naturally omits it when the main point of the sentence is where something is or how abundant it is. Because the focus here is heavily on the location and frequency (на каждом шагу), the verb is dropped.

В этом городе кафе на каждом шагу.

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