The letter -g- acts quite interestingly in Spanish. When it comes before -e- or -i- it is pronounced with a soft sound, similar to the -h- in ‘have’. When it comes before every other letter, it is pronounced with a hard sound, like the -g- in ‘goat’. So what happens if we want to represent a hard -g- before -e- or -i-? We add a -u- in between them. This -u- isn’t pronounced, it just serves the purpose of telling us that that -g- is hard. Thus, ‘gente’ (people) is pronounced with the soft sound, and ‘guerra’ (war) is pronounced with the hard sound.