sin aliento
Adivina qué, Panchito, dijo él sin aliento.
I take the phrase "sin aliento" to mean "breathlessly." But my friend Normita was telling me that a better translation is "without any encouragement". The two meanings are related, but I'm wondering if Normita's is a good translation into English or whether she said that based on the fact that her English is not that good. "Breathlessly" actually seems to make more sense to me.
3 Answers
Normita is right, it can mean "discouraged" or "dejected" or "disheartened", but it can also mean "breathless/out of breath". You have to judge based on context.
This website and this website seem to agree with you that it means "breathless", J! 
Blockquote
Mira también que desalentar (desalentado) puede significar "discourage" in inglés. Por eso pienso que aliento tiene el sentido de "without encouragement" en español.
¿Qué piensas? ¿Y qué piensan los otros aquí?
He dicho eso, sin aliento es sin aliento simplemente.
