In de instellingen kun je kiezen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.

Literally, In de instellingen means “in the settings”.

In context, this is the typical phrase you see in software, apps, or on a phone, referring to the Settings menu. So it’s like saying:

• In de instellingen = In the settings (menu / section)

Grammatically, it’s a prepositional phrase (in + de instellingen) placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis or flow. If you put it in the middle, you’d get:

• Je kunt in de instellingen kiezen of …
  You can choose in the settings whether …

All three are possible in modern Dutch, but there are differences:

• je kunt kiezen – more “standard” word order when je starts the sentence.

• kun je kiezen – happens because the sentence starts with In de instellingen, so Dutch does verb–subject inversion in main clauses:

  • In de instellingen kun je kiezen …
  • Je kunt in de instellingen kiezen …

• kan je kiezen – very common in spoken Dutch and informal writing; kan is another form used instead of kunt, especially in the 2nd person singular.

So:

• Je kunt kiezen …
• Kun je kiezen … ? (question word order)
• Je kan kiezen … (informal, but very frequent)

In your sentence, word order requires verb before subject (because something other than the subject is at the start), so kun je fits that pattern.

Here of means “whether”, not “or”.

• … kun je kiezen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
  = … you can choose whether notifications still vibrate in silent mode.

In Dutch:

• of = if/whether after verbs like kijken, vragen, weten, kiezen etc.
  • Ik weet niet of hij komt. – I don’t know if/whether he is coming.
• als = if in the sense of a condition:
  • Als hij komt, gaan we eten. – If he comes, we’ll eat.

So you must use of here because we’re talking about choosing between two possibilities, not making a conditional sentence:

• You can choose whether they vibrate or not.
• In Dutch: Je kunt kiezen of ze nog trillen (of niet).

Because the part after of is a subordinate clause in Dutch:

• of
  • meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen

In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb goes to the end:

• Main clause: Meldingen trillen. – Notifications vibrate.
• Subordinate: … of meldingen trillen. – … whether notifications vibrate.

In your sentence, trillen is an infinitive functioning as the verb of that subordinate clause, and it also has to go to the end:

• … of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.

This is normal Dutch word order:

• Ik vraag me af of hij morgen komt. – I wonder if he is coming tomorrow.
• Ze wil weten of de telefoon nog trilt. – She wants to know if the phone still vibrates.

In this sentence, nog means “still / anymore”.

• … of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
  = … whether notifications still vibrate in silent mode (or not anymore).

Nuance:

• nog often means still:
  • Hij slaapt nog. – He is still sleeping.
• It can also mean additional / another / more:
  • Wil je nog koffie? – Do you want more coffee?

Here it carries the still / any more meaning: you’re choosing whether vibration continues when the phone is in silent mode.

Stiltestand is a compound noun:

• stilte = silence
• stand = mode / position / setting

Together: stiltestand ≈ “silent mode”.

Dutch loves compound nouns; if English would normally write silent mode as two words, Dutch very often glues them together:

• vliegtuigstand – airplane mode
• energiebesparingsstand – power-saving mode

So stiltestand is the standard way to express the phone’s silent mode.

In this technical/UI context, stiltestand behaves like an uncountable “mode” label, not a normal countable noun. It’s used similarly to:

• in stiltestand – in silent mode
• in vliegtuigstand – in airplane mode

If you added de, it would sound odd or overly specific:

• in de stiltestand – like in the specific silent mode, which is not how system modes are usually named.

So for standard device settings, we normally omit the article:

• Je telefoon staat in stiltestand. – Your phone is in silent mode.
• Zet de telefoon in vliegtuigstand. – Put the phone in airplane mode.

Meldingen is the plural of melding.

• melding = notification, message, report, alert (depending on context)
• meldingen = notifications / alerts

In phone or app settings, meldingen almost always means system/app notifications (push notifications, banners, sounds, vibrations, etc.).

Other contexts:

• een foutmelding – an error message
• een melding maken – to file a report (with the police, authorities, etc.)

But here, from the combination with instellingen and stiltestand, it clearly means phone/app notifications.

Yes, several variations are natural and keep the same meaning:

• Je kunt in de instellingen kiezen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
• In de instellingen kun je instellen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
  (instellen = to configure / set up)
• In de instellingen kun je bepalen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
  (bepalen = to determine/decide)

A slightly more explicit version:

• In de instellingen kun je kiezen of meldingen in stiltestand nog mogen trillen.
  (whether notifications are allowed to vibrate)

All of these are correct; the original is idiomatic and concise.

Dutch has stressed and unstressed forms of the 2nd person singular pronoun:

• jij – stressed (emphasized) subject form
• je – unstressed (weak) form

In neutral statements like this one, the unstressed form je is more natural:

• In de instellingen kun je kiezen … – you can choose … (general “you”)

You would use jij when you want to emphasize contrast or stress the subject:

• Niet ik, maar jij kunt in de instellingen kiezen …
  Not me, but you can choose in the settings …

or

• Jij kunt in de instellingen kiezen of meldingen in stiltestand nog trillen.
  (emphasis: you specifically, as opposed to someone else)

So je here is just the normal, unstressed, general “you”.