I know that in regards to writing, there are tons of cognates but that’s only in text (such as: hôtel / hotel, table, garage & etc). Instead, can speakers of either language understand each other when having a verbal face to face conversation? Both languages are from different backgrounds: French is part of the Romance group while English is a Germanic one.
I felt so confident moving to Norway from the US because of this very phenomenon. And then someone asked me out loud if I needed a bag (in Norwegian) and I completely froze. Like what? Spoken Norwegian does sound much like how it’s written (once you know the sounds and combos) but like any language, the space between words in writing and spoken aloud are just different. And that difference is the reason I am still on kampbussen 6 years later.