This may be a silly question - sorry - but I am a bit confused so I thought I'd check.

I'm not likely to be taking any singing exams any time soon, but when you do, in the lower exams when an edition with a translation is specified, is it OK if you sing in the original language anyway?

I certainly hope so, but haven't checked the syllabus. I've just accompanied a Grade 3 singing exam which was fixed up right at the last minute, and the candidate sang one of her songs (Mendelssohn Gruss = Greeting) in German. I wouldn't expect any extra marks for singing in the original language in itself, but some of the English translations are so awful I should think it would feel much better to sing the words the composer set!

Exactly! Even with the good translations, if a piece of music has been written to fit the words and meaning in one language, it's rarely or never going to fit so well to another. Anyway one assumes that person's teacher would know, and if the examiner didn't say anything then I guess it was OK. I feel sure it must say somewhere in the syllabus but I'm easily confused...