Официант разливает чай по чашкам.

Because официант is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.

• официант = waiter
• nominative singular masculine

In Russian, the subject is usually in the nominative, just like in dictionary form.

Чай is the direct object of the verb, so it is in the accusative case. But for an inanimate masculine noun like чай, the accusative singular looks exactly the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: чай
• accusative: чай

This is very common in Russian:

• Я вижу стол.
• Он пьёт чай.

Both стол and чай are in the accusative, but they look unchanged.

По чашкам is in the dative plural.

The preposition по often takes the dative when it means something like:

• among
• over
• into separate places
• distributed across

Here, по чашкам means the tea is being poured into the cups / among the cups, with the idea of distribution.

Form breakdown:

• singular: чашка
• dative singular: чашке
• plural: чашки
• dative plural: чашкам

Because по + dative often expresses the idea of distributing something among several items.

So разливать по чашкам is a very natural Russian pattern for:

• pouring liquid into multiple cups
• handing things out one by one
• dividing something among containers or people

This is different from simply focusing on movement into one place. The phrase emphasizes that the tea is being spread out cup by cup.

These verbs are related, but they focus on slightly different ideas.

• наливать / налить = to pour, to fill, to pour into something
• разливать / разлить = to pour out, to distribute by pouring into multiple containers

In this sentence, разливает works well because the tea is being poured among several cups.

A rough contrast:

• Он наливает чай в чашку. = He is pouring tea into a cup.
• Он разливает чай по чашкам. = He is pouring tea into the cups / distributing the tea among the cups.

Разливает is imperfective.

Its infinitive is разливать.

The imperfective is used because the sentence presents the action as:

• ongoing
• in progress
• habitual
• without focusing on completion

So разливает can mean:

• is pouring
• pours (habitually or in a general description)

The perfective partner is разлить. A future/completed idea would use forms from that verb, for example:

• Официант разольёт чай по чашкам. = The waiter will pour the tea into the cups.

Yes. Russian present-tense imperfective verbs can often correspond to either:

• is pouring (right now)
• pours (habitually / generally)

The exact meaning depends on context.

For example:

• If you are watching the waiter right now, it means is pouring.
• If you are describing what the waiter usually does, it could mean pours.

Russian does not always mark that distinction as explicitly as English does.

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible because case endings show the grammatical roles.

The neutral order here is:

• Официант разливает чай по чашкам.

But you could also hear:

• Чай официант разливает по чашкам.
• По чашкам официант разливает чай.

These versions change the focus or emphasis, not the basic core meaning.

Very roughly:

• Официант... = neutral, starting with the subject
• Чай... = emphasizes the tea
• По чашкам... = emphasizes the distribution into cups

Because the sentence describes pouring the tea into multiple cups, not just one.

• по чашке would suggest something like into a cup or per cup, depending on context
• по чашкам clearly gives the idea of distribution among several cups

This fits naturally with разливать, which often implies dividing a liquid among multiple containers.

The stress is on the а:

• разливАет

A simple pronunciation guide:

• ra-zlee-VA-yet

And the whole sentence is pronounced approximately like:

• afi-tsi-ANT raz-lee-VA-yet chai pa CHASH-kam

A few stress points:

• официант → официа́нт
• разливает → разлива́ет
• чашкам → чашка́м

Stress matters in Russian, so it is worth learning these with the word.

Yes: Russian has no articles.

So nouns like официант, чай, and чашкам do not have separate words for a, an, or the.

Whether English translates them as:

• a waiter
• the waiter
• tea
• the tea
• cups / the cups

depends on context, not on an article in Russian.

Yes, but the nuance is a bit different.

• в чашки focuses more directly on movement into the cups
• по чашкам emphasizes distribution among the cups

With разливать, по чашкам is especially natural because the verb already suggests pouring something out into separate containers.

So both may be understandable in the right context, but разливать чай по чашкам is a very standard and idiomatic expression.