We study Au, Cr, and Ag metals evaporated on rf-sputtered a-Si:H at room temperature using high-resolution photoemission techniques. For Au/a-Si:H, three regions of coverage can be classified: an unreacted region with an equivalent thickness of 2 A, followed by an intermixed Au/a-Si overlayer (~9 A), and a dual-phase region at higher coverage. Au adatoms are dispersely distributed in the unreacted region. They subsequently cluster in the intermixed region, where they attach to Si atoms that are not hydrogen-bonded, suggesting that the intermixed Si were mainly those that had dangling bonds. In the dual-phase region, two sets of Au 4f core levels evolve with higher binding energy, one from Au intermixed with Si, and the lower one exhibiting pure gold character. The interface eventually ends up with the sequence: a-Si:H(sub.) + (pure Au mixed with intermixed Au/Si) + (vac.). This is unlike the case of Au on c-Si, which has a pure gold layer sandwiched by intermixed Au/Si complexes along the surface normal. Traces of silicon atoms on top of the composite surfaces appear even at the highest coverage, 205 A, of the gold deposit. The applicability of the four models previously used for the Au/c-Si interface is also briefly discussed;For Cr/a-Si:H, the evolution of the interface qualitatively follows that on c-Si, despite differences in the valence band emission. The interface begins with an inactive layer (≤1 A) of Cr, followed by an intermixed Cr/a-Si:H layer (≤12 A). With further Cr deposition, bulk-like Cr metal begins to develop on top of these. Some features exhibited by the Cr/a-Si:H interface are specific to a-Si:H surfaces. For instance, Cr adatoms are found around the dangling bond neighborhoods at coverages below 1A, avoiding Si-H bonds. The oxygen residue is responsible for the presence of a 6 eV peak in the valence band as well as a chemical shift in the Si 2p core levels. However, it is the intermixed Cr/a-Si:H species occurring above 2 A of Cr deposition that provokes the presence of these structures, even though at low coverages, the oxygen residue does not show any effect on the surface-electronic structure of the a-Si:H film. At high coverage, a slight trace of silicon atoms is still detectable;The Ag and a-Si:H interface is abrupt without intermixing. However, a subtle change occurs at a coverage of 1 A. Below that, silver atoms are likely to distribute at regions that are Si-H-bond free. Further, bands at the surface bend upward, similar to the Au/c-Si:H interface. Above 1 A, no Si-H bonding states are found either in the valence-band or the core-level spectra.