How to count distinct Strings in ArrayList without using Set?

How do you count the number of distinct Strings in an ArrayList without using the Set data structure in the Java libraries?

I made two ArrayLists, one stored and one empty and want to store the empty one with distinct Strings. What am I doing wrongly?

public void distinctCount (WordStream words) {
ArrayList<String> loaded = new ArrayList<String>();
  ArrayList<String> empty = new ArrayList<String>();
  int count = 0;

  // Fill loaded with word stream
  for(String i : words) {
    loaded.add(i);
  }

  // Fill empty with loaded
  // Catch collisions
  for(int i = 0; i < loaded.size(); i++) {
    if(loaded.get(i) != empty.get(i)) {
      empty.add(loaded.get(i));
    }
  }
  return empty.size();
}