java - int variable comparison returning a boolean value -

i have boolean method doing error checking on string. have int class constant called "numwords" = 8. pass string boolean method word count on string using .split , .length. int called "words" counts number of words in string. after done want if statement comparing words against numwords. if equal in number return true else false. have tried == , .equals nothing works. ideas?

public static final int numwords = 8;  boolean test = true; string sentence = "i man"; test = check(sentence);  public static boolean check (string sentence) {     boolean x = true;     string[] s = sentence.split(" ");     int words = s.length;      if (words == numwords) {         x = true;     }      else {         x = false;     }     return x;  } 

i have tried == , never evaluates false

i have tried .equals, int cannot dereferenced

i have tried =, doesn't compile incompatible types

what want if words = 8 equals numwords , returns true. if words 7 or 9 doesn't equal numwords , returns false.

i making guess want return boolean instead of assigning boolean.

public static boolean check (string sentence) {      string[] s = sentence.split(" ");     int words = s.length;      return words == numwords }