Thread: 'Have you eaten?' and 'Did you eat?'

Вы звонили домой? Did you try to phone home?
Вы позвонили домой? Did you phone home/Have you phoned home?

I doubt the difference can be expressed via English tenses solely, rather than with auxiliary verbs like "try".

I think the former variant is used more often, because such a question usually implies that it is unknown whether one called home at all.
The latter variant is more definite (perfective), and it's more about asking a specific question about a specific call you wanted to make.

Note that aspects have slightly different meanings in interrogative sentences, as opposed to declarative sentences.

Originally Posted by car

Note that aspects have slightly different meanings in interrogative sentences, as opposed to declarative sentences.

And in negative sentences as well.
Compare:
- Это ты разбил окно? - Is it you who broke the window?
- Нет, я не разбивал его. - No, I did not break it.

The questions uses a perfective verb here, because the window is broken (so, we get the result).
The negative answer uses an imperfective verb, because there was no action at all, it did not even start. If the answerer replied as "Я не разбил окно" (with the perfective verb), it would sound as if he tried to break it, but failed to get a result.