bash echo number of lines of file given in a bash variable without the file name

I have the following three constructs in a bash script:

NUMOFLINES=$(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE)
echo $NUMOFLINES" lines"

echo $(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE)" lines"

echo "$(wc -l $JAVA_TAGS_FILE) lines"

And they both produce identical output when the script is run:

121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines
121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines
121711 /home/slash/.java_base.tag lines

I.e. the name of the file is also echoed (which I don't want to). Why do these scriplets fail and how should I output a clean:

121711 lines

?