I'm a native Russian, not French, speaker, but it's more clear for me with all this stuff, it seems to me. "Travail" describes more what you do every day at the office, for example. "Métier" is less "practical" than an everyday work ("travail") (it's how I feel it), it means who you are by education you've got, it's like profession. I think that somebody can say: Mon métier est professeur d'anglais, mais je travaille comme interprete (sorry, i haven't got the accent needed here). It's more difficult for me to explain "emploi" in English, but still: "Emploi" means that a person isn't unemployed on the whole, that he/she does have a work, a contract. It's more economical notion, as I understand it. Hope, it's become just a little bit more clear. P.S. Sorry, i pressed on the signs that i don't know ((up and down signs with numbers)) Thought it was for replying to this particular post.

Emploi = Job

Métier = Craft, Profession

Travail = Work

Birdieangie says it well. La Rousse uses the example "Il est sans emploi" (He is unemployed). Emploi = employment. Métier = trade or profession (de métier = professional) La Rousse says boulot = work, which sounds like it might be used to refer to your specific job (e.g. a cashier at Walgreens) or to work in general ("très boulotboulot" means "workaholic"; they also give the example "Je déjeune au boulot", meaning "I have lunch at work"). travail = job or work, it sounds like it can be used for vague or specific purposes, like in English. I suppose, if you have to remember one word, it would be this one.. it seems to capture everything. http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/travail/78326

i agree - the definitions all include "job" when various answers don't allow this

See Sitesurf's comments here http://www.duolingo.com/comment/206549 for some explanations.

Travail: work, more like things you do every day at your job. May not actually be at a paid job.

Metier: closest translation is "career" I think. It's something that describes your long term field/work. Or profession.

Emploi: employment/job.

Apparently not. I gave that as an answer and it was corrected to "J'aime mon boulot", a word that doesn't even appear in the mouseover list. Go figure!

Yes, I know emploi is more of employment but Il trouve un emploi was translated by DL as he finds a job

"je aime" is always truncated to "j'aime", no exceptions. In fact it is very rare for two vowels to be in juxtaposition in this way. Hence "c'est" for "ce est" and "l'arbre" for "tree", or any other noun beginning with a vowel. Also "j'adore", "j'ai" and so on.

Because 'travail' is a masculine noun, and 'ma' is feminine, as in 'ma femme'

Because "ma" is for feminine nouns. This has already been answered - mon is used for masculine nouns or feminine nouns which start with a vowel; ma is used for all other feminine nouns. Travail is masculine.