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.
Even if a few of the words are the same, the pronunciation is hugely different. More so than German or Spanish, which also share words with English.