Here's why it's not like an alphabet:
* Logographic: Many signs represent whole words or syllables.
* Syllabic: Some signs represent syllables, like "ba" or "da".
* Determinative: Some signs indicate the category of a word, like "person" or "animal".
However, there are over 600 cuneiform signs, and some of them can be considered "letters" in the sense that they represent phonetic sounds:
* The Akkadian language (which used cuneiform) used a system of around 20 basic signs that represented consonants, with vowels being implied or added by context. This is similar to an alphabet, but it's not exactly the same.
Therefore, it's more accurate to say that cuneiform writing uses signs, rather than letters. These signs can be grouped into different categories based on their function, and some of them do represent phonetic sounds.