Can two people just be incompatible?

My H and I have been separated for a year and a half. He initiated it but I was ready for a break as well. Through that time H and I have been talking about what happened, what we each could have done differently, etc but it was only recently that we both seemed to agree that we might try again. Both of us are cautious about that decision. One of my major issues is that we have very different styles of communicating. He's from an Irish Catholic family from the east coast and I'm from the passive aggressive northwest. There was an advice column recently in the Washington Post where the person writing in had a fiance that teased her all the time - made fun of her for liking particular things, etc. She found herself trying to hide those things from her fiance rather than "put up" with his teasing. I identified with this writer - I've done the same thing - hide parts of myself from my H because I didn't want him to make fun of me. I can see that another woman might take it differently - just friendly banter, to which the response should be teasing him back - but that just isn't my style. It hurts my feelings to be teased. The advice columnist suggested that this was a compatibility issue. Do you agree? Should something like this be a red flag that a marriage can't work?

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