Once the changes described by Grimm's law had taken place, there was only one type of voiced consonant, with no distinction between voiced stops and voiced fricatives. They eventually became stops at the beginning of a word (for the most part), as well as after a nasal consonant, but fricatives elsewhere. Whether they were plosives or fricatives at first is therefore not clear. The voiced aspirated stops may have first become voiced fricatives, before hardening to stops under certain conditions. But they may also have become stops at first, softening to fricatives in most positions later.