using System;

​

public class Program

{

    public static int GetCountOfWords(string sentence)

    {

        if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(sentence))

        {

            return -1;

        }

        var result = sentence.Replace("the", string.Empty);

        result = result.Trim();

        string[] resultArray = result.Split(new string[] {" "}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

        return resultArray.Length;

    }

    public static void Main(string []args)

    {

        Console.WriteLine(GetCountOfWords("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"));

    }

}